JJUA54070U Law and Literature

“Law and literature” has become a widely established field of study in law schools throughout the United States and Europe. Literature presents an alternative way of thinking about the law - one that is synthetic, creative, and comfortable with ambiguity and ambivalence. Learning to read and interpret works of literature helps make you a better lawyer – for example, by providing new and deeper understandings of the law and by providing an awareness of the power of rhetoric in legal argument. This course will explore our understanding of law and the way it shapes our consciousness of ourselves and our society by reading selected works of Western literature through a lawyer’s eyes. It will provide an opportunity to think about the law in a new way from a humanistic and philosophical perspective and to read engaging works of fiction that shape our vision of the law and were shaped by actual legal dilemmas. In addition, we will be reading legal opinions that grapple with issues raised by our discussion of these works of art.

The course will examine in depth the following works of literature, focusing on the issues of law and legal advocacy they raise: Sophocles, Antigone, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, Franz Kafka, The Trial, Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons, and Albert Camus, The Stranger. Various critical readings of each of these works will also be examined. Students must participate in discussions and debates on the implications the texts raise for legal interpretation and legal advocacy. In addition, students will also be required to read relevant case law grappling with legal issues similar to those raised by these works and apply insights gained from those works in their analysis of those cases.