The Significance of an Interdisciplinary Legal Education

Law & Contemporary Society

Law and Literature

Law & Contemporary Society has well demonstrated how and why literature plays such a significant role in a legal education, but it is worth looking at additional examples of how law and literature go hand in hand. There are two substantive areas of this interdisciplinary field of study that I believe are worth touching on. The first is the study of the law as literature. The second is the study of the law in literature. This interdisciplinary approach to the law is one that has particular benefits for the study of law as well as the practice of law.

The Law as Literature

The Law in Literature

Works Cited

Where the "among other things" are all the elements of the mechanism of legal interpretation, which can't be subsumed or pushed aside by canons of interpretation generated in relation to non-legal materials, right?

The effect of an analysis like that is not only that we can better understand what our lawmakers are saying but also that we can develop more sound arguments for our interpretation.

Perhaps. But have we not to observe that the rules of courtroom narrative are not those of the courtroom novel, and that the modes of narrative construction in fiction might not be quite as useful as they might seem to an amateur reader in the actual business of trying cases?

I think the best way to make this better is to focus more tightly on the subject. First we must discover what that is. I don't think the subject is why you were an English major, or even what kind of law teacher you're planning to be, although that might be closer. The frequency of JD/PhD training for teachers is not part of your subject unless you are planning to get an Eng;lish PhD, which does not appear in the present draft.

On the relation between the activity of lawyering and the activity of reading critically, or writing artfully, there is surprisingly little here. I can't tell whether that's because this relation isn't your subject at all, or because it has been crowded out by other digressions.

To the extent that this relation is your subject, I'm a little surprised again that there is no reference to what is going on in the course we are sharing, which uses literary materials to offer other routes into the nature of the legal imagination (a concept that doesn't make any appearance in this draft, but which might usefully inform the next, it seems to me).

Literature and the Law: The Study of One, the Other, and Them Both

-- By TaraKade - 24 Feb 2021

Literature and the Law: The Study of One, the Other, and Them Both

People often asked me why I elected to study Literatures in English while I was in undergrad. It seemed to them that the job prospects for English majors were grim. "So, you want to be an English teacher?" they would ask as if there was something wrong with that but also as if that was my only choice. The truth is that I might have wanted to be an English teacher if I had not been so enamored with the idea of studying the law. As it was, a career in legal academia was more aligned with my goals.

The interesting thing is that though I was considering a career in academia, a desire to teach was not why I selected my major. I chose it because Literature, in my opinion, was one of the more interdisciplinary subjects of study I could select. By the end of my time in undergrad, I had studied film theory, history, sociology, psychology, gender theory, race theory, and more all through a breadth of literature courses. All of this made me a better student of literature and a better academic in general.

Now, I am in law school, and I find myself wondering how the perspectives I gained as a literature major can make me a better student of the law. I am constantly considering the way a more explicitly interdisciplinary education would benefit myself and my peers as future lawyers, academics, and people.

Legal Academics and Practitioners

A significant number of legal academics employed in law schools across the nation have some form of interdisciplinary education. In fact, at a recent Columbia Law event, I was informed that the number of law professors with a Ph.D. in an area of study that is not law is growing each year. Having an interdisciplinary foundation with which to approach looking at the law allows these academics to publish more innovative and impactful articles, notes, and books. It also allows them to teach their students through an interdisciplinary perspective. Whether it be themes of history, philosophy, economics, sociology, biology, literature, or something else, having this perspective allows for a teaching of law that is more dynamic, well-rounded.

I believe an interdisciplinary legal education is not only beneficial to those interested in legal academia- be it studying law or teaching it- but rather, that it has the potential for large benefit to those who practice the law as well. Studying economics, biology, or business could aid in substantive knowledge for one’s practice. Studying literature, sociology, and psychology has the potential to aid attorneys in drafting effective memorandum, making persuasive arguments, and making the best possible jury selections. And studying philosophy can help you learn key logic skills. After taking Methods of Persuasion for my Legal Methods course this semester, I have come to see that to be a truly effective writer and orator, you must study more than the law.

Law and Literature

We turn now back to where we began: law and literature. There are two substantive areas of this interdisciplinary field of study that I believe are worth touching on. The first is the study of the law as literature. The second is the study of the law in literature. This interdisciplinary approach to the law is one that has particular benefits for the study of law as well as the practice of law.

The Law as Literature

One of the many ways that a literary education can be beneficial in legal academia is in that a literary education teaches a specific set of analytical skills. If the law is literature, we want to analyze the law the way we would a piece of literature. Thus, in trying to understand anything from a statute to the Constitution, we would look at syntax, diction, tone, and framing, among other things. The effect of an analysis like that is not only that we can better understand what our lawmakers are saying but also that we can develop more sound arguments for our interpretation.

In 2018, a top scholar of law and literature, Richard Weisberg, wrote a piece titled “Cardozo’s ‘Law and Literature’: A Guide to His Judicial Writing Style” wherein he commented on Cardozo’s piece “Law and Literature.” Weisberg’s piece is full of commentary on how the law exists as literature and why that matters but for the sake of brevity, I will highlight this very telling quote,

“For Cardozo, “style” in law counts for much more than the imposition of occasional uses of Shakespeare or abuses of a thesaurus. In fact, he argues, attention to the literary is mandatory in all acts of legal communication, because style controls meaning; it is not added on for fun.”

In effect, Cardozo is highlighting the necessity of being an effective literary scholar to being an effective legal scholar.

The Law in Literature

The study of law within works of literature is as significant as the study of law as literature. When we look at law in literature, we see the effects of various rules of law and legal processes on society in a way that allows us to understand that the law is not without real-world impact. Literature is uniquely situated to invoke feelings of sympathy as we come to care for the characters whose stories we have been thrust into. Seeing the way the law affects them allows us to understand when and what reform may be necessary.

In addition, reading law in literature helps us understand effective narrative persuasion. In written and oral arguments lawyers are telling a story and they want their audience (judge or jury) to believe it. When we see a case play out in a novel, we often pick a side. This is because we become invested in of the parties. Seeing what strategies cause this is incredibly valuable in crafting arguments that do the same.

Weisberg, Richard H. (2018) "Cardozo's "Law and Literature": A Guide to His Judicial Writing Style," Touro Law Review: Vol. 34 : No. 1 , Article 21.

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