Description
Book SynopsisThis highly original and creative study reconnects the law to its narrative roots by showing how and why stories become laws.
Table of ContentsIntroduction PART I: Law and Narrative: Reexamining the Relationship * Describing Law in Terms of Autonomy * Narrative as the Basis of Law and the Humanities * Shelley's Case, Part 1: Law of The Jungle * Shelley's Case, Part 2: Silent Spring * Law, Literature, and Narrative * What is Narrative? * How Narratives Interact to Influence Legislation * Text in Context * What's Truth Have to Do with It? * Whose Story to Believe? PART II: Institutionalizing Narratives * Narrative and the Normative Syllogism * The Narrative Nudge * When Narratives Clash * Changes in Narrative, Changes in Law * Law's Constraints: Genetic or Precedential? * Novelizing Law * Resisting Narratives: Keeping the Outside Out * Absorbing Narratives: Letting the Outside In * What Law Can Learn from Literature (and History) PART III: Law, Narrative, and Democracy * The Rule of Law and Its Limits * Toward a Democratic Rule of Law * The Jury as a Structural Safeguard of Democracy * The Democratic Role of Interpretive Communities * A Study in Contrasts: The Rodney King and O.J. Simpson Juries * Is Jury Nullification Democratic and Within the Rule of Law? * Some Thoughts on Democratic Interpretation PART IV: Narrative as Democratic Reasoning * The Narrative Shape of Deliberation * Law-as-Discipline * The Problem with Appellate Practice and Appellate Opinions * (Re)Introducing Narratives in the Classroom * Democratic Education, Private Reason, and the Law A Conclusion of Sorts Notes Bibliography Index
