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Thelaw and literature movement focuses on connections betweenlaw andliterature. This field has roots in two developments in the intellectual history of law—first, the growing doubt about whether law in isolation is a source of value and meaning, or whether it must be plugged into a large cultural or philosophical or social-science context to give it value and meaning; and, second, the growing focus on the mutability of meaning in all texts, whether literary or legal. Work in the field comprises two complementary perspectives:Law in literature (understanding issues as they are explored in literary texts) andlaw as literature (understanding legal texts with literary interpretation, analysis, and critique).[citation needed]
James Boyd White'sThe Legal Imagination (1973) is often credited with initiating the law and literature movement. It is a fusion of anthology and critique, drawing on a range of sources, with headnotes and questions on the relationship of legal texts to literary analysis, and literary texts to the legal issues that they explore. Proponents of the "law-in-literature" theory, such asRichard Weisberg andRobert Weisberg, believe that literary works, especiallynarratives centered on a legal conflict, offerlawyers and judges insight into the "nature of law". This perspective examines and interprets legal texts using the techniques ofliterary critics. Scholars such as White andRonald Dworkin apply law as literature, because they maintain that the meaning of legal texts, such aswritten law, like any othergenre of literature, can be discovered only through interpretation. These matters are contentious.
Richard Posner, of thelaw and economics movement, wroteLaw and Literature: A Misunderstood Relationship, a critical attack particularly on the writings ofRobin West.
Richard Delgado andJean Stefancic have argued against White, and his theory of some celebrated legal cases in U.S. history; and they agree with Posner on several issues. According to Delgado and Stefancic, the moral position of judges is determined by normative social and political forces rather than by literature.
