Reasoning by analogy is the most familiar form of legal reasoning. It dominates the first year of law school; it is a characteristic part of brief-writing and opinion-writing as well. But exactly what is analogical reasoning, as it operates in law? The subject receives little attention in the most influential works in Anglo-American jurisprudence and legal theory.' Often lawyers themselves are unenthusiastic about analogical reasoning, urging that this w.y of thinking about law is unconstrained

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... aw is unconstrained or not a form of reasoning at all. 2 As a result, the legal culture lacks a sympathetic depiction of its own most characteristic way of proceeding. 3