(True) Euclidean Logic & the Law

An article in the New York Times reports on math & science education in China. The reporter David Barboza tells this anecdote:

In Li Zhen’s ninth-grade mathematics class here last week, the morning drill was geometry. Students at the middle school affiliated with Jing’An Teachers’ College were asked to explain the relative size of geometric shapes by using Euclid’s theorem of parallelograms.

A teacher instructed students in class at the middle school associated with Jing’An Teachers’ College in central Shanghai.

“Who in this class can tell me how to demonstrate two lines are parallel without using a proportional segment?” Ms. Li called out to about 40 students seated in a cramped classroom.

Question: Should law students, lawyers, judges, and ... er ... law teachers be able to reason about this sort of problem?

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The dynamic evidence page

It's here: the law of evidence on Spindle Law. See also this post and this post.