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PHB, pg. 11]Three Basic Rules
In addition to the core mechanic, three principles are at the heart of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game. Many other rules are based on these assumptions.
Simple Rules, Many Exceptions
Every class, race, feat, power, and monster in the D&D game lets you break the rules in some way. These can be very minor ways: Most characters don’ wrote:

Three Basic Rules
In addition to the core mechanic, three principles are at the heart of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game. Many other rules are based on these assumptions.
Simple Rules, Many Exceptions
Every class, race, feat, power, and monster in the D&D game lets you break the rules in some way. These can be very minor ways: Most characters don’t know how to use longbows, but every elf does. These exceptions can also appear in very significant ways: A swing with a sword normally does a few points of damage, but a high-level fighter can use a power that can fell multiple monsters in a single blow. All these game elements are little ways of breaking the rules—and most of the books published for the D&D game are full of these game elements.
Specific Beats General
If a specific rule contradicts a general rule, the specific rule wins. For example, a general rule states that you can’t use a daily power when you charge. But if you have a daily power that says you can use it when you
charge, the power’s specific rule wins. It doesn’t mean that you can use any daily power when you charge, just that one.

Second, the logic:
1.  Assume that the purpose of the game system is to simulate combat and critical situations in a fictional setting, such that the players can direct their characters to take actions that are outside the experience and abilities of the players themselves, but within the experience and abilities of the fictional characters they control.  For aspects of life that the rules do not attempt to cover, assume that it functions in the same way as the normal world(ie, the rules don't have to tell you that what goes up must come down, nor that your character needs to use the latrine sometime).

2.  Given this assumption, the first fundamental principle makes it clear that powers 'beyond the norm'--including the ability to swing a sword accurately--must be given by a rule.  Player characters are empowered by the rules that let them take a PC Class, and the powers that those classes give them.  If there were no such rules, no PC would be any more skilled than the commoners we strive to save.
In other words, if there isn't a rule that says you can do something 'beyond the norm,' you can't without DM discretion(thus leaving RAW territory).
The example given in the above-quoted text makes this clear("most characters don't know how to use longbows, but every elf does" and "A swing with a sword normally does a few points of damage, but a high-level fighter can use a power...[etc.]"

3.  Adding in "Specific Beats General" places these 'exceptions' in a hierarchy, formalizing the assumption of "Simple Rules, Many Exceptions" that if there is a rule that provides exception to another, the exception takes precedence.  Rules conflicts occur in three basic cases: 1)The wording provided does not cover a given instance, 2)The wording of the specific or general rule is vague or confusing, 3)It is unclear in exactly what way the specific rule alters the general one(or this alteration contradicts the RAI or common sense).

4.  We are supposed to follow the two primary principles in an effort to reconcile such conflicts when they occur.