Law and literature is an interdisciplinary study of law and literature. The founding father of the modern law and literature movement was James Boyd White. He published The Legal Imagination in 1973 and aruges that literary study should be included in legal education. In addtion to case and code, he suggests, fiction, poetry, and drama also play a role in articulating justice.
There are basically four categories of law and literature studies. Firstly, it is argued that literature helps lawyers and judges learn important moral lessons. Secondly, scholars of hermeneutics learn lessons from literary theory and challenge traditional understanding of legal interpretation. Thirdly, many law and literature studies emphasize the narrative aspect of law. Lastly, some scholars focus on the historical interactions between law and literature.
References
- Kermit L. Hall, The Oxford Companion to American Law, Oxford University Press, 2002.