A Vision of American Law: Judging Law, Literature, and the Stories We Tell

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Description

Throughout history, works of literature have helped to shape public discussion of social, legal, and political issues. In this book, Barry R. Schaller draws on examples from American literature in presenting an analysis of the legal aspects of several major problems facing our society. After identifying the key legal relationships in society, the book focuses on problems of violence, loss of authority, diminished faith in the American dream of progress, and the challenges posed by immense social and technological change. The author offers a set of standards to serve as a guide to effective judicial decision making and to assist the public in evaluating the soundness of those decisions.

Reviews

"[This book] is a fascinating amalgam of sharp observations on classic American texts and the American judiciary system they reflect. It is surprising that such a work has not appeared before, but it is fortunate that, in Judge Schaller, we have a practitioner of the law as well as a wide-ranging humanist who feels free to range over the work of William Faulkner, Mark Twain, Nathanael West, as well as contemporaries such as Don Delillo.... As a writer who has wrestled with the problem of violence in America, I applaud Barry Schaller's success in spelling out how the law and literature often go hand in hand (or hand in glove). Judging Our Stories is a shrewd co-working of law and literature on the side of the angels."-Bill Keough Professor of English Fitchburg State College and author of Punchlines: Violence and American Humor
"A thoughtful meditation by a judge in his vocation and a teacher in his avocation, upon the idea and ideal of justice as expressed by two voices that are salient in our culture: American courts and classical American literature."-Geoffrey C. Hazard, Jr. Trustee Professor of Law The Law School, University of Pennsylvania
"Barry Schaller is a true humanist as well as a keen legal analyst. In [this work], he skillfully interweaves the legal and the literary responses to crucial issues in American society. He is always well informed, graceful, and humane. He offers a vision of American law that is bound to elicit a very positive response."-Peter Brooks Tripp Professor of Humanities, Yale University Author of Reading for the Plot and coeditor of Law's Stories
"Barry Schaller provides fresh perspectives on fundamental issues of America from the dual vantage points of law and literature. This book is about enduring subjects (the conflicts between individuals and society, the condition of the American Dream, the powers and limitations of the Courts) described in a highly creative manner by an author who is, at once, a judge and a person of letters."-John C. Danforth former U.S. Senator from Missouri Partner, Bryan Cave LLP
"Judge Barry Schaller's [book] does a wonderful job of placing the inadequacy of our courts and of our law into the larger context of our ambivalence concerning what we expect out of society as expressed through literature that tells our law stories. Law, Judge Schaller shows, depends on the stories we tell one another about such things as individual rights vs. regulation, private codes of conduct, violence, and even the legitimacy of law per se.... Judge Schaller's book captures both [the glory and the agony of what judges and lawyers really do] in a style that is accessible to a general reader."-Richard Neeley former Chief Justice of West Virginia Author of How Courts Govern America
"We are only beginning to comprehend the crucial insights to be discovered where the best of our literature meets leading judicial opinions that wrestle with many of the same societal conflicts. Judge Schaller illuminates these connections with innovative insights in this clear and convincing book. He has a great deal to say to the general public, as well as to lawyers and to all those who study our literature and are concerned about the enduring social issues we face."-Aviam Soifer Author of Law and the Company We Keep Dean and Professor of Law Boston College Law School
The book is superb....Who should read this book Anyone who loves the law or loves literature and especially those who love both.-The Law and Politics Book Review
"The book is superb....Who should read this book Anyone who loves the law or loves literature and especially those who love both."-The Law and Politics Book Review

Author Bio

BARRY R. SCHALLER is a judge of the Connecticut Appellate Court. He was appointed to the Appellate Court in 1992 after eighteen years on the Connecticut trial bench. He is a graduate of Yale College and the Yale Law School and has been a Visiting Lecuturer at Yale University and a Guggenheim Fellow at the Yale Law School. He regularly teaches courses on law, literature and jurisprudence to state court judges. Judge Schaller is the author of numerous articles on various legal topics including law and the humanities, constitutional law, complex case management, and violence in American society.