Law Commons^™

Law, Literature, And Social Change: Foreword, Sharon A. Mattingly

Vanderbilt Law Review

FOREWORD: Interpreting the meaning of words, whether those words compose a precedent-setting case or a newly enacted statute, is an integral part of the law. Furthermore, the impact of legal texts clearly extends beyond the legal discipline and permeates all layers of society. But from where do we derive the meaning of words and texts? Is the text itself the source of meaning, or is the text an embodiment of a meaning, the source of which is society? What determines textual interpretations-the historical roots of the text itself, the historical gloss of prior interpretations, the private experiences that each new …

Social Violence And Political Representation, Michael Ryan

Vanderbilt Law Review

If I were to sum up the revolution that has occurred in the humanities (and increasingly in the social sciences) in the past two decades, it would be to say that what was before seen as substance is now seen as representation. One could expand on that statement in several ways:what was before seen as nature or reason is now seen as convention or artifact; what was before a logic of necessity is now a highly contingent,even random relation of terms whose connections obey no necessary order; what was before a ground or foundation from which reasonable derivatives could be …

Afterword: Voices And Violence--A Dialogue, Ellen W. Clayton, Jay Clayton

Vanderbilt Law Review

WE: When organizing this Symposium on the topic of "Law, Literature,and Social Change," we asked whether current trends in literature and in literary, social, and legal theory actually could play a role in bringing about social change. The authors gathered at this Symposium responded to this question in very different ways. As we read their articles and comments, however, and as we talked about their various approaches, some common themes began to emerge. Narrative seemed important. The way people split public life off from private experience came up frequently. But violence seemed to be on everyone's mind.

IT: Why violence? …

The Interface Of Myth And Practice In Law, Frederick Schauer

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article has analyzed and critiqued the myth of law as rules and contrasted it with a view of law as a process of responsible decision making. The operational code of this process requires that the lawyer recognize his role as decision maker and the necessary ramifications of personal choice and responsibility inherent in that role. Yet the individual who resists embracing the code, and who seeks instead the holy grail, may only be clamoring for fulfillment of the myth system. If his commitment to the significance of the myth does not impede his education as decision maker or his …

Legal Education: A More Optimistic View, Robert B. Mckay

Vanderbilt Law Review

While few would disagree with Dean Forrester's statement that"America is now in the midst of an attempted revolution," several questions naturally arise. Dean Forrester does not identify the nature and goals of the "attempted revolution," but the inference is that he disapproves. One wonders whether he objects to change because it challenges the status quo; whether he disagrees with the direction of the proposed change; or whether he opposes the method, particularly the abruptness, with which change is being forced upon us. Each possibility merits response.

Change Versus the Status Quo. It would be unfair to Dean Forrester to suggest …

The Behavioral Sciences, Stability, And Change, Donald Young

Vanderbilt Law Review

Estimation of the potential contribution of behavioral research to social stability and social change may be attempted only in over-simplified terms. The necessary simplification here will be accomplished by considering the core behavioral sciences alone, by taking the position that social stability and change are two aspects of a single social process, by assuming that the problem is not whether behavioral research can contribute to understanding of that process but how the contribution best may be made, and by limiting illustrative references mainly to the medical and legal fields.

The Creative Power And Function Of Law In Historical Perspective, Harry W. Jones

Vanderbilt Law Review

The creative work of legislators, administrators, judges, and practicing lawyers is far more than a "response" to social change. Through-out recorded history, law itself has been one of the greatest of the forces of social change. Change and stabilization are, as Donald Young has reminded us, part of the same social process, and law is at the heart of that process. Let us concede, and readily, that the command theories of law embodied in the writings of Bodin, Hobbes, and Austin exalted unduly the pervasiveness of law's imperatives as the controlling influence on the behavior of men in society. At …