Practice extended : beyond law and literature

Description

Practice Extended is a collection of Robert A. Ferguson's essays reflecting forty years of his scholarship and reflects the evolution and the aims of the field as well as its impact on the study of both literature and law. Ferguson's work explores a wide range of topics including immigration, eloquence, the Constitution, rhetoric and Ulysses, and mercy. Ferguson's essays emphasize the interdisciplinary connection between law and literature. The field, as Ferguson sees it has roots in two major developments in the intellectual history of law--first, the growing doubt about whether law in isolation is a source of value and meaning, or whether it must be understood within larger cultural and intellectuals contexts; and, second, the continued focus on the mutability of meaning in all texts, whether literary or legal. Those who work in the field stress one or the other of two complementary perspectives: law in literature (understanding legal issues as they are explored in great literary texts such as Billy Budd) and law as literature (understanding legal texts by reference to methods of literary interpretation, analysis, and critique)"  Read more... Introduction: the letters in law -- Literary components in the legal imagination -- The U.S. Constitution as literature -- The place of mercy in legal discourse -- Immigration law: an answer to intractability -- The nature of judgment -- Holmes and the judicial figure -- The opinion as literary genre -- Ulysses in government hands -- The public uses of eloquence -- Lawyer Lincoln: the making of eloquence -- Memorialization and the spirit of law -- Precision in persuasion -- When law fails -- The Somers Mutiny and the American ship of state -- Invading Panama: circumstance and the rule of law -- Coda: how to read a courtroom novel