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Law & Humanities Blog

Law & Humanities Blog

International Conference On Shakespeare and Montaigne

Posted: 20 Nov 2012 08:19 AM PST


José Calvo Gonzalez, University of Malaga Faculty of Law, sends word of a conference on Shakespeare and Montaigne to be held at the Universidade Federal Fluminense on November 26, 2012. More here.

Law and Language in the Macau Legal Regime

Posted: 20 Nov 2012 07:30 AM PST

Salvatore Casabona has published The Law of Macau and its Language: A Glance at the Real 'Masters of the Law' at 4 Tsinghua China Law Review 223 (2012). Here is the abstract.
This article discusses the biligualistic legal system in Macau. The discussion begins with the outline of the history of the Macanese bilingualism. The author then examines the crucial distinction between the language in the law and the law in the language.
By analogy to European Community and other bilingual legal systems, this article identities the characteristic of Macanese mulitlingualism. This article concludes with suggestions about a new approach and the role of universities in resolving the matter.Download the article from SSRN at the link. 

Ungendering Law and Literature

Posted: 20 Nov 2012 07:27 AM PST

Greta Olson, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, has published Law is not Turgid and Literature not Soft and Fleshy: Gendering and Heteronormativity in Law and Literature Scholarship at 36 Australian Feminist Law Journal 65 (2012). Here is the abstract.

This essay uncovers a pattern of gendering in Law and Literature research that has contributed to limited understandings of the disciplines, taken singly, as well as to the projection of a heteronormative script on their relations to one another. This includes the troping of literature as feminine and that of law as masculine, and the emplotment of their relationship as that of an initially antagonistic yet ultimately satisfying heterosexual romance. Accordingly, actual forms of discrimination towards women are confused with contradictory images of a feminized literature as an empathetic, eloquent and morally superior woman. This idealized image of literature is figured as initially suffering under the regime of rationalistic, masculinized law but then reforming 'him' through the power of love. To posit law as a man and literature as a woman is to elide their similarities and reify their differences. After assembling evidence of gendering in US American Law and Literature work and to a lesser degree in British critical jurisprudence, the essay outlines historical reasons for why it is problematic to think of literature as morally uplifting and feminine and law as 'brutish' and masculine. Instances of ethical and contingent applications of law speak against any monolithic narrative that suggests that literature is inherently more morally conscious. Literature has proven to be a privileged forum for doing the police work of enforcing the gender binary as well as for maintaining other social divisions. In closing, the essay describes strategies to degender Law and Literature in an effort to move the conversation forward.
Download the article from SSRN at the link. 
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