Choice 评论

This important book does much to advance scholarship in the new "law and literature" movement. The contributors all take seriously the idea that law's power lies in its ability to convince by telling stories that capture the imagination and impose the "shock of recognition," as opposed to convincing through rational discourse, articulation of general theory, or development of compelling analogy. In several extended essays Gerwitz, Brooks, and others explore the judicial opinion and the trial as forms of dramatic narrative, showing how both judges' writings and lawyers' presentations to juries are crafted for dramatic effect and hence persuasiveness. In brief comments a number of other scholars respond with amplifications and sharp disagreements, so that the whole untidy package brims over with exciting, original, and insightful ideas, but perhaps because the essays were papers and comments at a symposium, the volume lacks the authority of a tight narrative reviewing the emerging issues in this new field. This may be its strength as well. The volume is useful for anyone wanting an overview of this new field, and is indispensable to anyone interested in legal reasoning. General readers; undergraduate students; faculty; professionals. M. M. Feeley University of California, Berkeley