Narrative and metaphor in the law

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Machine generated contents note: 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 Katherine 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.

"It has long been recognized that court trials, both criminal and civil, in the common law system, 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"--

"Law lives on narrative, for reasons both banal and deep ... Clients tell stories to lawyers, who must figure out what to make of what they hear. As clients and lawyers talk, the client's story gets recast into plights and prospects, plots and pilgrimages into possible worlds ... If circumstances warrant, the lawyers retell their clients' stories in the form of pleas and arguments to judges and testimonies to juries ... Next, judges and jurors retell the stories to themselves or each other in the form of instruction, deliberations, a verdict, a set of findings, or an opinion. And then it is the turn of journalists, commentators and critics. This endless telling and retelling, casting and recasting is essential to the conduct of the law. It is how law's actors comprehend whatever series of events they make the subject of their legal actions"--