Legal fiction

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A legal fiction is a construct used in law where, in order to facilitate a specific outcome, a position is taken to be true, even if such a position is not literally true. Legal fictions can be employed by the courts or found in legislation. Legal fictions are different from legal presumptions which assume a certain state of facts until the opposite is proved, such as the presumption of legitimacy. The term legal fiction is sometimes used in a pejorative way. Jeremy Bentham was a famous historical critic of legal fictions. Proponents of legal fictions, particularly of their use historically, identify legal fictions as "scaffolding around a building under construction".

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