Legal rules are expressed in general

Answer choices

1. A

   Out of Scope: matters of fact11% picked this

   Legal rules, like matters of fact, are concerned with classifications of things

   I never made it past the second comma. We don't know anything about matters of fact. We're told that legal decisions are not matters of fact, but we don't have any positive statements about what "matters of fact" are, so there's no support for saying anything about matters of fact (other than "matters of fact are not identical to a legal decision").

   11%
2. B

   Out of Scope: matters of fact7% picked this

   Matters of fact, like legal rules, can sometimes be expressed in

   Same as (A). We don't know anything about matters of fact. We're told that legal decisions are not matters of fact, but we don't have any positive statements about what "matters of fact" are, so there's no support for saying anything about matters of fact (other than "matters of fact are not identical to a legal decision").

   7%
3. C

   Too Strong: does not involve Contradicted14% picked this

   Making legal decisions does not involve matters

   We know that "matters of fact are not identical to a legal decision", because we're told that legal decisions establish the legal effect, not any matter of fact. But the two could be frequently overlapping. A legal decision might say "this oil company is culpable for the damage of this oil spill" and as a matter of fact the company may indeed be responsible for the damage. Beyond that, in trying apply a rule to a particular case (i.e. making a legal decision), we are deciding on whether the facts of that case fall within the categories mentioned in the rule. So since we have to inquire whether the facts trigger the rule, making legal decisions does involve matters of fact.

   14%
4. D

   Out of Scope: judge1% picked this

   The application of a rule to a particular case need not be left

   The paragraph never discusses judges. We might think to ourselves, "I'm not a judge, but I could still assess whether a rule applies to a particular case", but there's no support for that in the passage.

   1%
5. E

   Correct67% picked this

   Whether the facts of a case fall into a relevant category is not itself a

   Why this is right

   The last sentence is all we know about "matter of fact", and it says this decision does not establish any matter of fact What does "this decision" refer to? a decision on whether the facts of the case fall within the categories mentioned in the rule So put that together and what do you get? deciding whether the facts of the case fall does not any matter into the relevant establish of fact category of the rule It would be kind of like if we were told, "Although tax money is spent in part on supporting charitable organizations that do good deeds, paying your taxes is a legal responsibility, rather than a good deed." The analogous answer would sound like this (A) Paying money to a government which will later use that money in part to support organizations that do good deeds is not itself a good deed".

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

   67%