Document Type
Article Draft
Publication Date
1-22-1992
Language
en-US
Abstract
Lawyers more than most people should be aware that what language calls "facts" are not necessarily equivalent to things that exist in the world. After all, when in ordinary conversation someone says "It's a fact that this [ X ] happened," the speaker usually means, "I believe the thing I describe has happened in the world". But when a litigator says something is a "fact" she often means only that a good faith argument can be made on behalf of its existence. Two sets of fact finders can look at the same event and come to diametrically opposed conclusions-- each of which is binding, but on different people. Most law students come to accept pragmatically this necessary byproduct of the adversary system.
Recommended Citation
Wendy J. Gordon, Draft of Reality as Artifact (Jan. 22, 1992) (unpublished manuscript).
Included in
Intellectual Property Law Commons, Philosophy Commons, Supreme Court of the United States Commons
