ABSTRACT
When a judge writes an opinion, in modern legal systems, he takes care to cast his opinion in proper legal form. This does not, of course, correspond with what actually happens in his mind-his conscious thought processes. An opinion, in other words, is carefully composed, just as a person might compose a letter applying for a job, to make sure the latter is in proper and effective form. Legal reasoning is not true reasoning, in short. Indeed, it is hard to imagine a mind so grotesque that it indulges in legal reasoning when it goes to work.
