Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Medium

PT124 S1 Q16 Explanation

Jurist: A nation's laws

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Logical Reasoning question.

TopicsMust be True

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Stimulus

Jurist: A nation's laws must be viewed as expressions of a moral code that transcends those laws and serves as a measure of their adequacy. Otherwise, a society can have no sound basis for preferring any given set of laws to all violation of statutes must leave room for exceptions.

What this question is testing

Must be True

Your task

Break the argument into its conclusion and evidence, then do exactly what the question stem asks with that structure.

Common trap

Answers that sound relevant to the topic but don't connect to the argument's actual reasoning.

Winning move

Predict what a right answer must do, then test each choice against the conclusion-evidence gap.

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

The question
16.

Which one of the following can be properly inferred from the

Answer choices

  1. Contradiction1% picked this

    Those who formulate statutes are not primarily concerned with morality when

    The statements support the view that those who formulate statutes should be primarily concerned with morality, since statutes should reflect a moral code.

  2. Contradiction15% picked this

    Sometimes criteria other than the criteria derived from a moral code should be used in choosing one set

    Morality is the basis for preferring one set of laws over another.

  3. Contradiction7% picked this

    Unless it is legally forbidden ever to violate some moral rules, moral behavior and compliance

    This suggests that if there is a difference between morality and the statutory code, then the laws forbid violating morality. However, it would make more sense to say that when there is no difference between morality and the legal code, then the laws forbid violating morality.

  4. Contradiction3% picked this

    There is no statute that a nation's citizens have a moral

    This suggests that moral codes and statues always perfectly align, but the statements suggest that they don’t always perfectly align.

  5. Correct74% picked this

    A nation's laws can sometimes come into conflict with the moral

    Why this is right

    This follows from the fact that moral prohibitions against violating statutes need to leave room for exceptions. Why? Because statutes and moral codes do not always perfectly align.

    Skill tested: Must be True · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

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