Law in Literature: Legal Themes in Short Stories

Issues of legal philosophy taught in jurisprudence courses have been pondered by brilliant fiction writers. This anthology brings together forty law-related short stories by writers from various times and places, including Boccaccio, Hawthorne, Tolstoy, Kafka, Cather, and Asimov. Divided into five parts--Establishing Laws, The Judicial System, Punishment, Criminal Matters, and Civil Matters--and additional subsections, the stories demonstrate how writers have dealt with topics such as equality, finding the truth, capital punishment, murder, and domestic relations. The section introductions draw upon philosophy, psychology, literature, and law to point to the jurisprudential issues, and also utilize pithy epigraphs for this purpose. Questions are raised, but not answered: the reader is left to reflect on the age-old legal and ethical concerns that continue to trouble and inspire us.

This anthology has the ambitious purpose of bringing law in literature to the general public, to practicing attorneys, to students in English or philosophy courses, and to law school students in law and literature courses. Elizabeth Villiers Gemmette has chosen a widely accessible, yet diverse narrative voice. For readers who wish to delve further into the fascinating world of law through literature, the volume concludes with lists of law-related fiction and films.