Law and Literature

This book is based on a seminar that took place at the Carlsberg Academy in Copenhagen in March 2007. It was arranged by The Faculty of Law, Copenhagen University. All the contributors to this book were present and they are all pioneers within the law and literature movement, whether in the USA, Europe or the Nordic Countries.

Law and literature in the Nordic countries is a relatively new discipline especially seen from a lawyer's point of view. In Nordic humanities law and literature has been introduced as a field of study but Nordic lawyers till now with a few exceptions have not in the same way as is seen in the United States taken up this challenging subject. This publication is therefore also meant as an introduction to law and literature as a field of interest for both lawyers and students and scholars of literature.

Table of Contents

Introduction

By Karen-Margrethe Simonsen and Ditlev Tamm

Rich, Sweet, and Tender vs. Sour, Displeased and Upset: Two Ways of Seeing Things in 'Noon Wine'

By Richard H. Weisberg

'The Bloody Book of Law', some remarks on the interrelation of law, medicine, and the behavioral sciences in William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'

By Jeanne Gaakeer, Erasmus University Rotterdam

The Menace of Venice, Or Reading and Performing the Law in/of The Merchant of Venice

By Leif Dahlberg

Killing an Arab = ? On Judgments as Literature and Literature as Judgment

By Arild Linneberg

Law as a Tale of Identity - and Some Perspectives on Human Rights Law

By Sten Schaumburg Müller

Europe as Contested Terrain: On European Narratives of Human Rights

By Helle Porsdam