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Narrative and Metaphor in the Law

Narrative and Metaphor in the Law

Narrative and Metaphor in the Law

Michael Hanne, University of Auckland
Robert Weisberg, Stanford University, California
February 2018
Available
Hardback
9781108422796

    It has long been recognized that court trials in the common law system, both criminal and civil, operate around pairs of competing narratives told by opposing advocates. In recent years, however, it has increasingly been argued that narrative flows in many directions and through every form of legal theory and practice. Interest in the part played by metaphor in the law, including metaphors for the law, and for many standard concepts in legal practice, has also been strong, though research under the metaphor banner has been much more fragmentary. In this book, for the first time, a distinguished group of legal scholars, collaborating with specialists from cognitive theory, journalism, rhetoric, social psychology, criminology, and legal activism, explore how narrative and metaphor are both vital to the legal process. Together, they examine topics including concepts of law, legal persuasion, human rights law, gender in the law, innovations in legal thinking, legal activism, creative work around the law, and public debate around crime and punishment.

    • Takes the form of nine conversations between pairs of eminent scholars in different disciplines
    • Opens up discussion for the first time of the joint roles of narrative and metaphor in the law
    • Topics include legal persuasion, gender in the law, judicial opinions and public debate around crime and punishment

    Product details

    February 2018
    Hardback
    9781108422796
    438 pages
    235 × 158 × 27 mm
    0.74kg
    2 b/w illus.
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • Introduction Michael Hanne and Robert Weisberg
    • 1. Narrative, metaphor and concepts of justice and legal systems Greta Olson and Lawrence Rosen
    • 2. Narrative and metaphor in legal persuasion Michael R. Smith and Raymond W. Gibbs
    • 3. Narrative and metaphor in judicial opinions Simon Stern and Peter Brooks
    • 4. Narrative, metaphor and gender in the law Linda L. Berger and Kathryn M. Stanchi
    • 5. Narrative, metaphor and innovations in legal thinking Roberto H. Potter
    • 6. Narrative and metaphor in public debate around crime and punishment Dahlia Lithwick and L. David Ritchie
    • 7. Narrative and metaphor in human rights law Katharine G. Young and Bernadette Meyler
    • 8. Narrative and metaphor in creative work around the law Lawrence Joseph and Meredith Wallis
    • 9. Narrative and metaphor in legal activism Mari Matsuda.
      Contributors
    • Michael Hanne, Robert Weisberg, Greta Olson, Lawrence Rosen, Michael R. Smith, Raymond W. Gibbs, Simon Stern, Peter Brooks, Linda L. Berger, Kathryn M. Stanchi, Roberto H. Potter, Dahlia Lithwick, L. David Ritchie, Katharine G. Young, Bernadette Meyler, Lawrence Joseph, Meredith Wallis, Mari Matsuda

    • Editors
    • Michael Hanne , University of Auckland

      Michael Hanne founded the Comparative Literature Programme at the University of Auckland, New Zealand and directed it until his retirement in 2010. He has published 'Binocular Vision: Narrative and Metaphor in Medicine', in Genre (2011) and Warring with Words: Narrative and Metaphor in Politics (2014).

    • Robert Weisberg , Stanford University, California

      Robert Weisberg is Edwin E. Huddleson, Jr Professor of Law at Stanford University, California. He also founded and now serves as faculty co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center (SCJC). He is co-author (with Guyora Binder) of the book Literary Criticisms of Law (2000).