Università Roma Tre

Course description:

The course will first provide an introduction to the Law and Humanities movement in general and then focus on different, even if strictly connected, fields of study: Language & Literature, Visual, Music and Performance.
The course will question the traditional isolation of legal studies by analyzing law with reference to other social sciences and, more generally, cultural processes. Texts, symbols and representations of the law, which have greatly influenced popular understanding of it, will be discussed by scholars coming from different parts of the world, each of whom will be teaching 1-3 lessons on a specific topic.

• Attendance policy

Frequency is compulsory. The course consists in a series of short seminars (or a single lecture) given by different speakers, each providing a number of readings (from 1 to 3). Attendance is necessary in order to understand the content of the course and to develop students’ English language skills.

Readings will be provided via the e-learning platform. Following is a list (not compulsory) of some of the most important papers published on the Law and Humanities movement:

The origins:
Cardozo B. N., Law and Literature, and Other Essays and Addresses, New York, 1931.
White J. B., The Legal Imagination, Chicago/London, abridged ed. 1985 (1973).
Wigmore J.H., A List of Legal Novels, in “Illinois Law Review”, 2 (1908), pp. 574- 593.
Weisberg R.H., Wigmore’s “Legal Novels” Revisited: New Resources for the Expansive Lawyer, in “Northwestern University Law Review”, 71.1 (1976), pp. 17-28.

Development:
Balkin J. M. and Levinson S., Law and the Humanities: An Uneasy Relationship, in “Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities”, 18.2 (2006), pp. 155-186.
Posner R. A., Law and Literature: A Relation Reargued, in “Virginia Law Review”, 72.8 (1986), pp. 1351-1392.
Witteveen W.J., Law and Literature: Expanding, Contracting, Emerging, in “Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature”, 10.2 (1998), pp. 155-160.

Interdisciplinarity:
Balkin J.M., Interdisciplinarity as Colonization, in “Washington and Lee Law Review”, 53.3 (1996), pp. 949-970.
Baron J.B., Law, Literature, and the Problems of Interdisciplinarity, in “Yale Law Journal”, 108.5 (1999), pp. 1059-1085.
Collier C. W., The Use and Abuse of Humanistic Theory in Law: Reexamining the Assumptions of Interdisciplinary Legal Scholarship, in “Duke Law Journal”, 41.2 (1991), pp. 191-273.
Smith J.A., Law and the Humanities: a Preface, in “Rutgers Law Review”, 29.2 (1976), pp. 223-227.
Sullivan K.M., Foreword: Interdisciplinarity, in “Michigan Law Review”, 100.6 (2002), pp. 1217-1226.

The decline of law as an autonomous discipline:
Posner R. A., The Decline of Law as an Autonomous Discipline: 1962-1987, in “Harvard Law Review”, 100.4 (1987), pp. 761-780.

Law and the Humanities in the Law Schools:
Dunlop C.R.B., Literature Studies in Law Schools, in “Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature”, 3.1 (1991), pp. 63-110.
Galanter M. and Edwards M.A., Introduction: The Path of Law Ands, in “Wisconsin Law Review”, 1997.3 (1997), pp. 375-387.
White G.E., Reflections on the “Republican Revival”: Interdisciplinary Scholarship in the Legal Academy, in “Yale Journal of Law and Humanities”, 6.1 (1994), pp. 1-35.

Law as Literature:
Brooks P., Narrativity of the Law, in “Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature”, 14.1 (2002), pp. 1-10.
Cover R.M., Nomos and Narrative, in “Harvard Law Review”, 97.1 (1983), pp. 4-68.
Dworkin R., Law as Interpretation, in “Critical Inquiry”, 9.1 (1982), pp. 179-200.
Levinson S., Law as Literature, in “Texas Law Review”, 60 (1981-1982), pp. 373-403.
Rains R.E., To Rhyme or Not to Rhyme: An Appraisal, in “Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature”, 16.1 (2004), pp. 1-10.
Sprafkin A., Language Strategy and Scrutiny in the Judicial Opinion and the Poem, in “Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature”, 13.2 (2001), pp. 271-298.
West R., Jurisprudence as Narrative: an Aesthetic Analysis of Modern Legal Theory, in “New York University Law Review”, 60.2 (1985), pp. 145-211.
White J.B., The Judicial Opinion and the Poem: Ways of reading, Ways of Life, in “Law and Literature: Text and Theory” edited by Lenora Ledwon, New York, 1996, pp. 5-28.

Law and the performing arts:
Levinson S. and Balkin J. M., Law, Music, and Other Performing Arts, pp.1-58, originally published in 139 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1597 (1991), now in: www.yale.edu/lawweb/jbalkin/articles/lawmusic.pdf
Id., Law as Performance, now in: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/jbalkin/articles/london21.htm#N_1_

Course Schedule
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