Legal Reasoning

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: January 30, 2000
Latest update: February 9, 2002
jeannecurran@habermas.org

• Start with the basic rule of law. No citizen is obliged to come to the aid of another.
• But what if there is a special relationship between the citizen and another? ("What if. . .s" are called hypotheticals in legal reasoning. Note similarity to "hypothesis.")

  If there is a special relationship, then the citizen may have the duty to come to the aid of the other.

  What constitutes a special relationship?

  A parent-child relationship.

  A teacher-student relationship.

  A relationship to someone who has relied upon your promise to help.

  Do the police have a duty to come to the aid of a stranded motorist?

  A general duty. But unless the police have entered a transaction with the individual which led the individual to rely on their protection specifically, they have no duty to an individual stranded motorist.

  What about individual protection from dangerous criminals?

  No duty to specific individuals unless the police entered into a transaction which led to the individual's reliance upon their specific protection.

  There is a good development of this argument in the California case, Posey in which Posey sued the State of California because the highway patrol failed to protect her from harm by removing a stranded car from the freeway.

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