The Mirror of Justice: Literary Reflections of Legal Crises English

Description

This book studies major works of literature from classical antiquity to the present that reflect crises in the evolution of Western law: the move from a prelegal to a legal society in The Eumenides, the Christianization of Germanic law in Njal's Saga, the disenchantment with medieval customary law in Reynard the Fox, the reception of Roman law in a variety of Renaissance texts, the conflict between law and equity in Antigone and The Merchant of Venice, the eighteenth-century codification controversy in the works of Kleist, the modern debate between "pure" and "free" law in Kafka's The Trial and other fin-de-siècle works, and the effects of totalitarianism, the theory of universal guilt, and anarchism in the twentieth century. Using principles from the anthropological theory of legal evolution, the book locates the works in their legal contexts and traces through them the gradual dissociation over the centuries of law and morality. It thereby associates and illuminates these masterpieces from an original point of view and contributes a new dimension to the study of literature and law. In contrast to prevailing adherents of Law-and-Literature, this book professes Literature-and-Law, in which the emphasis is historical rather than theoretical, substantive rather than rhetorical, and literary rather than legal. Instead of adducing the literary work to illustrate debates about modern law, this book consults the history of law as an essential aid to the understanding of the literary text and its conflicts. Cover Title Page Copyright Page CONTENTS PREFACE CHAPTER ONE: Introduction The Origins of Law The Evolution of Law The Dissociation of Law and Morality CHAPTER TWO: The Birth of Justice from the Spirit of Tragedy The Law of Blood Blood Vengeance in the Oresteia Aeschylus and the Areopagus From Tribe to Tribunal: The Eumenides CHAPTER THREE: The Ambivalence toward Pagan Law The Saga Age in Iceland Njal's Saga Legal Reality and the Aesthetics of Law Pagan Ethos and Christian Ethics Njala and Oresteia CHAPTER FOUR: The Role of Rome From Codification to Customary Law The Situation in Germany CHAPTER FIVE: The Disenchantment with Customary Law The Ironization of Ordeal The Trial of the Fox The Old French Renart The Middle High German Reinhart The Flemish Reinaert CHAPTER SIX: The Reception of Roman Law in Germany Lawyerly Skepticism: Sebastian Brant Professorial Disdain: Johannes Reuchlin Knightly Contempt: Ulrich von Hutten Humanist Ambivalence: Philipp Melanchthon CHAPTER SEVEN: European Variations Desiderius Erasmus Sir Thomas More François Rabelais CHAPTER EIGHT: Law and Equity I Antigone as Political Icon Antigone in Context Antigone and Creon Sophocles and Athens From Unwritten Law to Epieikeia CHAPTER NINE: Law and Equity II From Epieikeia to Equity Equity and Anomy in Elizabethan England The Merchant of Venice: Judicial Irregularities The Merchant of Venice: The State of Anomy CHAPTER TEN: The Attractions of Codification The Age of the Great Codes The Codification Controversy in Germany Kleist and the Prussian Code The Prussian Code in Kleist's Works Kleist's Critique of the Judicial System The Affirmation of Positive Law CHAPTER ELEVEN: The Modern Crisis of Law The Legal Situation in Fin-de-Siécle Austria Kafka and the Law The Trial: A Burlesque of Legal Procedure Kafka's Critique of the Law CHAPTER TWELVE: Twentieth-Century Legal Evolutions Totalitarian Law The Soviet Venue The Theory of Universal Guilt The Lure of Anarchism Justitia rediviva NOTES INDEX