A dependable, practical source that: - Covers analogical and deductive reasoning, as well as the roles of legal conventions, purposes, and policies in legal reasoning - Discusses cases of varying difficulty to diversify the learning process - Presents law and legal reasoning primarily through discussions of cases and examples that avoid the abstraction characteristic of most competing books - Emphasizes the law as used in practice by lawyers and judges - Provides an explicit and systematic introduction to law and legal reasoning - Offers a source suitable for use as supplementary reading in any first year course, in legal research and writing courses, in paralegal courses, and in other settings This great new edition has been carefully updated to include: - A new chapter, "Hardest Cases," that highlights cases notorious in the press - Updates throughout that guarantee the most current legal information.