Law Commons^™

Law And Its Limits: Ethical Issues In Mary Shelley’S Frankenstein Or, The Modern Prometheus, David S. Caudill

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

The law and literature movement is frequently associated with the use of literary images of law as a point of reflection upon the ethical obligations of lawyers. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818)—the story of a young scientist whose unorthodox experiments end up creating the famed “monster”—is not, at first glance, a likely candidate for that enterprise. However, Dr. Frankenstein’s ambition and ruthless pursuit of knowledge has become a contemporary image of science out of control and the need for ethical limitations on scientific progress. Consequently, the novel raises currently important issues of regulating science and technology. Given the lawyer’s ethical obligation …

The Right To An Artificial Reality? Freedom Of Thought And The Fiction Of Philip K. Dick, Marc Jonathan Blitz

Michigan Technology Law Review

In Anarchy, State, and Utopia, the philosopher Robert Nozick describes what he calls an “Experience Machine.” In essence, it produces a form of virtual reality (VR). People can use it to immerse themselves in a custom-designed dream: They have the experience of climbing a mountain, reading a book, or conversing with a friend when they are actually lying isolated in a tank with electrodes feeding perceptions into their brain. Nozick describes the Experience Machine as part of a philosophical thought experiment—one designed to show that a valuable life consists of more than mental states, like those we receive in …

Cyber Mobs, Disinformation, And Death Videos: The Internet As It Is (And As It Should Be), Danielle Keats Citron

Michigan Law Review

Review of Nick Drnaso's Sabrina.

Trauma-Informed Advocacy: Learning To Empathize With Unspeakable Horrors, Susan Ayres

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

During the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh as associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, Christine Blasey Ford testified regarding an alleged sexual assault by Kavanaugh that had occurred thirty-five years earlier. Although some viewed Blasey Ford’s testimony as a doomed repeat of Anita Hill’s testimony during the hearings on the nomination of Clarence Thomas, one significant difference was that the Kavanaugh hearings demonstrated an increased public awareness of the impacts of trauma. And just as senators hired a prosecutor trained in trauma-informed lawyering to question Blasey Ford, today’s lawyers must understand how trauma …

Trauma-Informed Advocacy: Learning To Empathize With Unspeakable Horrors, Susan Ayres

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Quasi Governments And Inchoate Law: Berle’S Vision Of Limits On Corporate Power, Elizabeth Pollman

Seattle University Law Review

This Berle X Symposium essay gives prominence to distinguished corporate law scholar Adolf A. Berle, Jr. and his key writings of the 1950s and 1960s. Berle is most famous for his work decades earlier, in the 1930s, with Gardiner Means on the topic of the separation of ownership and control, and for his great debate of corporate social responsibility with E. Merrick Dodd. Yet the world was inching closer to our contemporary one in terms of both business and technology in Berle’s later years and his work from this period deserves attention.

Rwu First Amendment Blog: Andrew Horwitz's Blog: First Amendment Protects The Right To Give And To Receive 05-23-2017, Andrew Horwitz

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

Slides: Synthesis Session: Indigenous Water Symposium, Jason Anthony Robison

Indigenous Water Justice Symposium (June 6)

Presenter: Jason Robison, University of Wyoming

15 slides

Introduction To Law In Literature And Philosophy, Joseph P. Tomain

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

As the title indicates, this is an Introductory Memorandum for a course entitled: Law In Literature and Philosophy. The memorandum begins to explore the themes of the course more particularly it explores the relationships between and among law, literature, and philosophy by posing questions such as: Is the intersection of law and literature limited to stories about law and methods of interpretation? Or is law and literature a movement to reclaim law as part of the humanities rather than as a social science such as economics as Judge Posner questions? Or, does literature, as Professor Martha Nussbaum has written, help …

The Culture Wars Of Climate Change, Matthew Rimmer

Matthew Rimmer

Of late, there has been a growth in cultural expression about climate change – with the rise of climate fiction (‘cli-fi’); art and photography responding to changes in nature; musical anthems about climate change; plays and dramas about climate change; and environmental documentaries, and climate cinema. Drawing comparisons to past controversies over cultural funding, this paper considers the cultural wars over climate change. This article considers a number of cultural fields. Margaret Atwood made an important creative and critical contribution to the debate over climate change. The work examines Ian McEwan's novel, Solar, a tragi-comedy about authorship, invention, intellectual property, …

The Right To Read, Lea Shaver

Lea Shaver

Reading – for education and for pleasure – may be framed as a personal indulgence, a moral virtue, or even a civic duty. What are the implications of framing reading as a human right?

Although novel, the rights-based frame finds strong support in international human rights law. The right to read need not be defended as a “new” human right. Rather, it can be located at the intersection of more familiar guarantees. Well-established rights to education, science, culture, and freedom of expression, among others, provide the necessary normative support for recognizing a universal right to read as already implicit in …

Intellectual Property And Gender: Reflections On Accomplishments And Methodology, Kara W. Swanson

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Mania: The Lives, Literature, And Law Of The Beats, Ronald K.L. Collins, David M. Skover

Seattle University Law Review

The Beats introduced the counter-culture to twentieth century America. They were the first to break away from Eisenhower conformity, from the era of the Man in the Grey Flannel Suit. With them came an infusion of rebel spirit—a spirit that hearkened back to Walt Whitman—in their lives, literature, and law. Their literature spawned a remarkable chapter in American obscenity law. The prosecution of Allen Ginsberg’s epic poem, Howl, was the last of its kind in this nation; and the prosecution of William Burroughs’s Naked Lunch is one of the last times that a novel was charged as obscene. The First …

The Learned-Helpless Lawyer: Clinical Legal Education And Therapeutic Jurisprudence As Antidotes To Bartleby Syndrome, Amy D. Ronner

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Who We Are: Incarcerated Students And The New Prison Literature, 1995-2010, Reilly Hannah N. Lorastein

Honors Projects

This project focuses on American prison writings from the late 1990s to the 2000s. Much has been written about American prison intellectuals such as Malcolm X, George Jackson, Eldridge Cleaver, and Angela Davis, who wrote as active participants in black and brown freedom movements in the United States. However the new prison literature that has emerged over the past two decades through higher education programs within prisons has received little to no attention. This study provides a more nuanced view of the steadily growing silent population in the United States through close readings of Openline, an inter-disciplinary journal featuring …

Rediscovering Cumulative Creativity From The Oral Formulaic Tradition To Digital Remix: Can I Get A Witness?, Giancarlo Francesco Frosio

Giancarlo Francesco Frosio

For most of human history the essential nature of creativity was understood to be cumulative and collective. This notion has been largely forgotten by modern policies regulating creativity and speech. As hard as it may be to believe, the most valuable components of our immortal culture were created under a fully open regime with regard to access to pre-existing expressions and reuse. From the Platonic mimēsis to the Roman imitatio, from Macrobius’ Saturnalia to the imitatio Vergili, from medieval auctoritas and Chaucer the compilator to Anon the singer and social textuality, from Chrétien’s art of rewriting to Shakespeare’s “borrowed feathers,” …

Franz Kafka, Lawrence Joseph, And The Possibilities Of Jurisprudential Literature, Patrick J. Glen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The purpose of this article is twofold. First, it offers a complementary reading of Franz Kafka’s writings on the law and Lawrence Joseph’s novel Lawyerland. This reading focuses on the distinct perspectives offered by these authors. Whereas Kafka approaches the law from the perspective of the litigant or accused, Joseph’s perspective, through the eyes of his lawyers and judges, is that of the consummate insider. The importance of perspective rests with the fact that although law might constitute an objective system, its experience is inevitably subjective. The absurd malevolence of law in Kafka can thus be rationalized by the system …

Profiting From Not For Profit: Toward Adequate Humanities Instruction In American K-12 Schools, Eli Savit

Michigan Law Review

Martha Nussbaum' describes Not For Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities-her paean to a humanities-rich education-as a "manifesto, not an empirical study" (p. 121). Drawing on contemporary psychological research and classic pedagogical theories, Nussbaum convincingly argues that scholastic instruction in the humanities is a critical tool in shaping democratic citizens. Nussbaum shows how the study of subjects like literature, history, philosophy, and art helps students build essential democratic capacities like empathy and critical thought. Through myriad examples and anecdotes, Not For Profit sketches an appealing vision of what an ideal education should be in a democracy.

Calling For Stories, Nancy Levit, Allen Rostron

Nancy Levit

Storytelling is a fundamental part of legal practice, teaching, and thought. Telling stories as a method of practicing law reaches back to the days of the classical Greek orators. Before legal education became an academic matter, the apprenticeship system for training lawyers consisted of mentoring and telling war stories. As the law and literature movement evolved, it sorted itself into three strands: law in literature, law as literature, and storytelling. The storytelling branch blossomed.

Over the last few decades, storytelling became a subject of enormous interest and controversy within the world of legal scholarship. Law review articles appeared in the …

Harry Potter & The Law: Family Life And Moral Character, James C. Smith

Scholarly Works

Harry Potter's mistreatment by his Muggle family does not amount to a legal wrong. Notice that Dumbledore did not threaten the Dursleys with legal proceedings, either in Muggle or Wizard tribunals. The ethic of equitable treatment is societal and lacks a legal basis in Anglo-American family law. Family law has many facets; it is an amalgam of legal rules and principles. My focus is the lens of property law -- in particular, family property norms -- although it is also plain that the Dursleys have not violated non-property based family law norms.

Does Law And Literature Survive Lawyerland?, Sarah Krakoff

Publications

No abstract provided.

A Conversation Between Milner Ball And James Boyd White, Milner S. Ball, James Boyd White

Other Publications

The editors of the Journal invited me to review James Boyd White's Acts of Hope. In response I proposed inviting Professor White to join me in a conversation about his work. First the editors and then he accepted the proposal. Professor White and I agreed that we might call a halt to this experiment at any time because we would not subvert our friendship in the attempt to enact an instance of it in print. The editors accepted the risk that we might at last have no pages for them. - MSB

Idealism And The Individual Woman: Reading Bessie Head's A Question Of Power, Paul J. Heald

Scholarly Works

In A Question of Power, South African exile Bessie Head graphically illustrates the relevance of gender difference to religion, political philosophy, and human rights. At first glance, the novel is a startling interior view of the psychosis that can result from constant alienation. The madness so painfully described, however, is portrayed as specific to women. And the road from madness -- the rejection of idealism, the rejection of universalism, and the rejection of power -- carries an important message to those seeking to understand the various feminist perspectives on human rights and spirituality. In Head's view, the recognition of …

The Last Butskellite, John D. Ayer

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Acts of Hope: Creating Authority in Literature, Law, and Politics by James B. White

Law, Literature, And The Humanities: Panel Discussion, James Boyd White, Nancy L. Cook, Judy M. Cornett, Clark D. Cunningham, Thomas D. Eisele, L. H. Larue, David Ray Papke

Other Publications

This panel discussion took place on April 21, 1994, as part of the University of Cincinnati College of Law's 1994 Robert S. Marx Lecture presented by Professor James Boyd White: The Authority of Law and Philosophy in Plato's Crito.

Mysteries Of Violence And Self-Defense: Myths For Men, Cautionary Tales For Women, Marianne Wesson

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Jurisprudence Of Jane Eyre, Anita L. Allen

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

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 …

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? …

Law And Literature: 'No Manifesto', James Boyd White

Articles

With what hopes and expectations should a lawyer turn to the reading of imaginative literature? To books and articles that purport to connect that literature in some way with the law? In particular, is "law and literature" -to which this Symposium is directed-to be thought of as an academic "field" like law and psychiatry, say, or law and economics? If so, what can it purport to teach us? If not, how is it to be thought of?