Self-study
A distinguished British judge, Justice Upton, said that Conclusion whether some administrative decision by a government minister is reasonable "is a question that judges, by their training and experience, should be well-equipped to answer, Support or else there would be something badly wrong with the legal system, and Support there is little reason to suppose that there is.".
Summarize Argument
Judges should be able to determine whether an administrative decision made by a government minister is reasonable. Upton defends this using conditional logic: If judges can’t determine this, then there’s something wrong with the legal system. By negating the necessary condition (likely nothing wrong with the legal system), the sufficient is also negated: Judges can determine this.
Identify Conclusion
The conclusion is a confirmation of judge ability: “Whether some administrative decision by a government minister is reasonable ‘is a question that judges, by their training and experience, should be well-equipped to answer.’”
1.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████ ███████ █████████
a
There is nothing ████ █████ ████ ███ █████ ███████
This is premise. (A) negates the necessary condition (if judges can’t determine this, then there’s something wrong with the legal system) so that the sufficient can also be negated: judges can determine this.
b
Judges should be █████ █ ███████ ████ ██ ██████████████ ████████ ███████
Upton doesn’t address whether the power of judges should expand. Upton only addresses whether judges have the ability to make a certain kind of determination.
c
Judges are qualified ██ ██████ ████ ███ ██████████████ ██ █ ██████████ ██████████ ██████████████ █████████
This is the main conclusion. Upton eliminates the requirement for judges to be incapable of this decision (legal system issue), therefore, they are capable.
d
If something were █████ █████ ████ ███ █████ ███████ ██████ █████ ██ ████████████ ██ █████████ ███████ █ ██████████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ███████████
This confuses sufficient and necessary conditions of a premise. A legal system issue is a requirement of judge inability; it doesn’t guarantee it.
e
If judges are █████████████ ██ █████████ ███████ ██ ██████████████ ████████ ██ ███████████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ █████ ████ ███ █████ ███████
This is mistranslation of a premise. Upton says that if judges can’t make the determination, then there’s something wrong. We can’t assume that if judges can make the determination, there’s nothing wrong. We can only confirm the sufficient to then confirm necessary, or negate the necessary to then negate sufficient.