Overview

Engaging with the underlying social context in which emotions are a motivational force, Law and the Passions provides a uniquely inclusive commentary on the significance and influence of emotions in the history and continuing development of legal judgment, policy formation, legal practice and legal dogma. Although the emotionality of the law and the use of emotional tropes in legal discourse has become an established focus in recent scholarship, the extent to which emotion and the passions have informed decision-making, decision-avoidance and legal reasoning – rather than as simply an adjunct – is still a matter for critical analysis. As evidenced in a range of illustrative legal cases, emotions have been instrumental in the evolution of key legal principles and have produced many controversial judgments. Addressing the latent influence of fear, hate, love and compassion, the book explores the mutability of law and its transformative power, especially when faced with fluctuating social mores. The textual nature of law and the impact of literary forms on legal actors are also critically examined to further elucidate the idea of law-making as both rational and emotional, and significantly as an essential activity of the empathic imagination. To this end, it is suggested that critical scholarship on law, the passions and emotions not only advances our understanding of the inner workings of law, it constitutes a fundamental part of our moral reasoning, and has the capacity to articulate the conditions for a more dynamic, adaptable, ethical and effective legal institution. This interdisciplinary book will be of interest to scholars and students in the fields of law and literature, legal theory, legal philosophy, law and the humanities, legal aesthetics, sociology of law, politics, law and policy, human rights, general jurisprudence and social justice, as well as cultural studies.

Full Product Details

Author:   Julia Shaw
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   0.421kg
ISBN:  

9780415631594

ISBN 10:   0415631599
Pages:   206
Publication Date:   25 July 2019
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Table of Contents Preface Introduction Chapter 1 No slave to reason: the significance of the passions in mapping the legal landscape The impossibility of reason without passion: I feel, therefore I am Robes and lobes: the convergence of law and neuroscience The logos of law and moral judgment as an emotional lexis Turtles (and the normativity of law) all the way down Intersubjectivity, law’s unconscious, and the ethical authority of the human face The life of law as the life of reason and the passions Chapter 2 Law, emotions and aesthetic justice The aesthetic influence on legal sensibilities Narrative creativity as the ‘life of law’ and the ‘law of life’ From expressivist aesthetics to expressivist ethics Poetry in (e)motion: expressing the inexpressible Through the looking-glass or the mirror crack’d Chapter 3 Law as Fear Fear and evaluative judgments Fear-mongering and the media: implications for justice Where Judges fear to tread: law and the politics of fear Fear, fetish, fantasy and legal framing strategies Legal truths and truisms, moral metaphors and moral panic Reimagining the foundations for justice: overcoming the new politics of fear Chapter 4 Law as Hate Law’s symbolic violence: use of linguistic coercion in the constitution of the legal order Law’s truth and the Tinkerbell Effect The (in-)visibility of law: ‘secret’ justice is justice denied Law as hate: killing in the name of the law On ideology and language in the classification of legal subjects: ‘them’ and ‘us’ Reimagining the Other as self: the promise of justice fulfilled Chapter 5 Law as Compassion From vengeance to compassion: the two faces of ‘justice’ Compassionate justice and the ethical significance of vulnerability ‘Truth waits for eyes unclouded by longing’: ‘enlarged’ (empathic) perception motivates compassionate judgment Compassion and the criminal justice system Compassion without justice is mere sentimentality however justice without compassion is but tyranny Chapter 6 Law as Love Determining the ‘right kind of love’: love as a moral emotion Love enriches and extends the scope of the lawyer’s question ‘who is my neighbour?’ Law and love: against the entitlement of wealth and the obstruction of justice The heart as law’s attorney: there can be no justice without love The imperative of a sentimental education: in recognition of law as an activity of the heart, soul and intellect Bibliography

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Author Information

Julia J.A. Shaw is Professor of Law at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. Her interdisciplinary scholarship spans legal theory, law and the humanities, critical and cultural legal studies, and human rights. Recent publications include ‘Law and the Literary Imagination: the contribution of literature to modern legal scholarship’ in The Palgrave Handbook of Philosophy and Literature (2018); ‘From Beethoven to Bowie: identity framing, social justice and the sound of law’ in International Journal for the Semiotics of Law 31(2) 2018; Jurisprudence (3rd edition, Pearson 2018) and Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Justice and the Global Food Supply Chain (Routledge, 2019).

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