Law and Literature
Law is Language. {J.B.White) Law is system of rules.
Law expresses vaLues, ideas, thoughts
LAW AND LITERATURE
Dual specialization
LAW IN LITERATURE LAW AS LITERATURE
Law is Language. (J.B.White)
Law is system of rules.
Law expresses values, ideas, thoughts.
INTERPRETATION
Power relations and cultural contents.
CONTEXT
WORDS
INTERPRETATION
Power relations and cultural contents.
CONTEXT
LANGUAGE
PERFORMANCE PERSUADING
LEGAL IMAGINATION
NOTIONAL (CONCEPTUAL) APPEARANCE OF LAW
NORMATIVE      AESTHETIC ETHICAL
"...attention in Law and Literature has deviated from its original professional intellectual and ethical goals, including, but not limited to, the development of interpretive skills and an empathetic focus on the perspectives of others." (Jeannne Gaakeer)
Connection between law and Literature
CULTIVATION
INTERPRETATION
NARRATIVE
IMAGINATION
OBSERVER REVIEW
John Fiske str. 105 -107 Introduction to communication studies. London Routledge (1982) 2002.
„The corpse which you see here is that of M. Bayard, inventor of the process that has just been shown to you. As far as I know this indefatigable experimenter has been occupied for about three years with his discovery. The Government which has been only too generous to Monsieur Daguerre, has said it can do nothing for Monsieur Bayard, and the poor wretch has drowned himself. Oh the vagaries of human Life....!... He has been at the morgue for several days, and no-one has recognized or claimed him. Ladies and gentlemen, you'd better pass along for fear of offending your sense of smell, for as you can observe, the face and hands of the gentleman are beginning to decay." Hippolyte Bayard (1840) Portrait as a Drowned Man
William H. Mumler (1832-1884)
Moses A. Dow, Editor of Waverley Magazine, with the Spirit of Mabel Warren. (1871)
William H. Mumler (1832-1884) "Mrs. Conant of Banner of Light. Her Brother, Charles H. CrowelI„(1868)
Total Solar Eclipse 2012
© 2012 Mrloslav Druckmüller, Man-To Hui, Robert Slobins, Constanttnos Emmanoulidis
LAW AND LITERATURE
Dual specialization
LAW IN LITERATURE
LAW AS LITERATURE
ROOTS
Eugene Wambaugh (1856 - 1940) John Henry Wigmore (1863 - 1943)
Reasons for the List
Learning and cultivation of a lawyer Description of significant events in law List of human characters
Cathegories of the List
• (A) Novels in which some trial scene is described-perhaps including a skilful cross-examination;
• (B) Novels in which the typical traits of a lawyer or judge, or the ways of professional life, are portrayed;
• (C) Novels in which the methods of law in the detection, pursuit and punishment of crime are delineated; and
• (D) Novels in which some point of law, affecting the rights or the conduct of the personages, enters into the plot.
Examples from the List
A
A. Dumas - Count of Monte Christo V. Hugo - Les Miserables F. Kafka - The Trial F.M.Dostoyevsky - The Brothers Karamazov (Crime
and Punisment) B
Ch. Dickens - Pickwick Papers W. Shakespeare - Hamlet A. Camus - The Fall C
A. Dumas - Count of Monte Christo W. Shakespeare - King Lear
D
V. Hugo - Les Miserables
Benjamin Nathan Cardozo (1870 -1938)
Necessity to create certain picture of reality Persuasiveness of court decisions
Relations between law and literature
Richard Posner
• Artistic description of court proceedings
• Interpretation
• Aesthetic
• Literature as an object of regulation
• Theatrical (dramatical) dimension
Ronald Dworkin (1931 - 2013)
Law is political Aesthetic hypothesis Chain of authors
Richard Posner's MINIMALISM
Development of deconstruction
+
Institutional reasons
There is nothing constructive Literary criticism can offer to a practice
INTERPRETATION:
law as literature
interpretation
Who is author - reader / genuine author / interpreter?
Are the any limits imposed to interpretation by community or by the text itself? Possibility of objective interpretation.
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Connection between law and Literature
CULTIVATION
INTERPRETATION
NARRATIVE
IMAGINATION