Law Lit (Honors)
Law Lit reveals the human experience that is antiseptically left out of legal opinions.
Judges and novelists, lawyers and poets see different things when they witness a trial. The novelist is interested in the idiosyncrasy of his characters, what set of psychological factors make them act in ways that the court, invariably, misunderstands. The lawyer, by contrast, wishes to objectify and impersonalize conduct, evaluating it according to the standard of what a "reasonable man" would do in this situation. The artist is more interested in what the irrational man has to say, and whether he, too, is permitted a day in court.
We will read selections from Mark Twain, David Mamet, Alexandre Dumas, Albert Camus, William Faulkner, Charles Dickens, Henrik Ibsen, and Leo Tolstoy among others as well as two novels: Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment and Franz Kafka's Trial. In addition, we will watch selections from "12 Angry Men," "Runaway Jury," "Witness for the Prosecution," "Inherit the Wind," "To Kill a Mockingbird," "Crash," and some episodes from The Simpsons.
We will discuss legal concepts in the course from the perspective of current American law. We will ask questions such as what constitutes acceptable evidence, what is due process, when is a deal a deal (that is, when is a contract binding)?
These discussions will contribute to your general education in legal matters and build upon the basic knowledge about civic rights and duties you acquired in Pacific Seminar I.
