Arguendo

The Latin legal term arguendo means "for the sake of argument". The phrase "assuming, "arguendo", that ..." is sometimes used in courtroom settings, and more frequently in academic legal settings, to designate provisional and unendorsed assumptions that will be made at the beginning of an argument in order to explore their implications.

Making an assumption "arguendo" allow an attorney to pursue arguments in the alternative without admitting even the slightest possibility that those assumptions could be true. Often, these assumptions would be that the facts or legal arguments endorsed by a hostile party were true. Thus, an attorney may say, for example, that "assuming, "arguendo", that my client stole the car, it would be clear that my client would have been justified in doing so in order to save a life." If the client would be shielded from legal consequences as a result even if he or she had committed the crime, this form of argument allows an attorney to suggest that it would be pointless to pursue the matter of whether the client committed the crime, as it would lead to the same legal consequences regardless of which set of facts was assumed to be true.

Similarly, particularly in an appellate court, a judge may ask an attorney what the effects of a different set of assumptions, made "arguendo", about the facts governing a situation might be. This is especially useful in exploring whether different fact patterns might limit the proper scope of a possible holding in a given case.