Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Medium

PT121 S3 P3 Q19 Explanation

Canadian Courts and Cultural Property

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Reading Comprehension question.

TopicsInferenceLaw

Keep going in LSAT Lab

  • Save & drill this skill — build targeted practice sets from questions like this one

  • Video walkthroughs — watch every question solved step by step

  • 81 official LSATs — as questions, timed sections & full-length tests

Start practicing free

Free to start

Full official LSAT questions are available through LawHub. This page provides LSAT Lab's explanation, strategy, and review tools without republishing the full official question.

Passage

Although the rights of native peoples of Canada have yet to be comprehensively defined in Canadian law, most native Canadians assert that their rights include the right not only to govern themselves and their land, but also to exercise ownership rights over movable cultural property—artifacts ranging from domestic implements to ceremonial costumes. custodians such as museums, recent litigation by native Canadians has called such ownership into question.

Canadian courts usually base decisions about ownership on a concept of private property, under which all forms of property are capable of being owned by individuals or by groups functioning legally as individuals. This system is based on a philosophy that encourages the right of owners to use their property as they die. Nevertheless, their children will enjoy the same rights, not as heirs but as communal owners.

Because the concept of collective property assigns ownership to individuals simply because they are members of the community, native Canadians rarely possess the legal documents that the concept of private property requires to demonstrate ownership. Museums, which are likely to possess bills of sale or proof of prior possession to substantiate their the notion of collective property, and that their claims to movable cultural property should be honored.

What this question is testing

Inference

Your task

Find what must be true based on what the passage or stimulus states.

Common trap

Answers that are plausible or likely but not actually guaranteed by the text.

Winning move

Keep only the choice the statements fully support — eliminate anything that requires an extra assumption.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
19.

The passage most supports which one of the following statements about the tribal legal systems mentioned in the second

Answer choices

  1. Too Strong: all Reversed Logic6% picked this

    All tribes whose legal system employs the concept of collective property have engaged in litigation over control

    We can't derive that 100% of tribes who use the concept of collective property have litigated to regain control over movable cultural property. The passage just said that 100% of tribes who have litigated to regain control over movable cultural property have used the concept of collective property.

  2. Same as (A) Reversed Logic9% picked this

    Only tribes that have engaged in litigation over control of movable property have a legal system that employs

    This is literally the same sentence as (A), which would tell you that they're both wrong. "Only" indicates the necessary condition, so just like (A), this would be diagrammed as if employs concept ? engaged in litigation of collective property over control of movable property We were told the Reversed Logic version of this.

  3. Correct76% picked this

    All tribes that have engaged in litigation over control of movable cultural property have a legal system that employs

    Why this is right

    We are told that "in all cases in which they've made legal claim to movable property they have done so by invoking this concept of collective ownership". So that would look like if engaged in litigation invoked concept over control of movable ? of collective cultural property ownership This answer is just taking it one inferential step further: "if a tribal system invoked the concept of collective ownership, then they employ the concept of collective property". That's basically a self-justifying truth, so we're fine with that extra little language move.

    Skill tested: Inference · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

  4. Too Strong3% picked this

    All tribes whose legal system recognizes the concept of private property can expect to succeed in litigation over

    Too Strong: all Out of Scope: can expect to win The only thing we can say about the "some tribes" that now recognize private property is that they have traditionally employed a concept of collective ownership and in all cases in which they've made legal claim to movable cultural property they've invoked the concept of collective ownership. Notice that all we know is past tense stuff. This answer is saying we can derive a forward-looking prediction that they can expect to win all their court cases!

  5. Too Strong: only6% picked this

    Only those tribes whose legal system recognizes the concept of private property can expect to succeed in litigation over

    Did the author ever say about these tribes in the 2nd paragraph that "if they don't recognize the concept of private property, they can never expect to succeed in litigation over control of movable cultural property"? No, that's way stronger than anything we can find in the 2nd paragraph.

Continue the review in LSAT Lab

Save this question, watch the video walkthrough, and drill similar questions in your LSAT Lab account.

Save and practice this skill
LSAT Lab

Turn this review into a targeted study plan.

Save this question, drill more like it, watch the video walkthrough, and track your progress in your LSAT Lab account.

Start practicing free