Contents

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Introduction. Shakespeare and The Law 1
4. Part I. How to Think “Law and Literature” in Shakespeare
5. two differences between law and literature 21
6. Decision, Possession: The Time of Law in The Winter’s Tale and the Sonnets 44
7. “Lively Evidence”: Legal Inquiry and the Evidentia of Shakespearean Drama 72
8. II. Shakespeare’s Knowledge of Law: Statute Law, Case Law
9. Interpreting Statute in Measure for Measure 101
10. Vengeance, Complicity, and Criminal Law in Othello 121
11. Part III. Shakespeare’s Attitudes toward Law ideas of justice
12. Law and Commerce in The Merchant of Venice 147
13. Opinion of Fried, J., Concurring in the Judgment 156
14. Equity in Measure for Measure 164
15. Shakespeare and Legal Systems: The Better the Worse (but Not Vice Versa) 174
16. Part IV. Law, Politics, and Community in Shakespeare
17. Liquid Fortification and the Law in King Lear 203
18. Saying in The Merchant of Venice 221
19. A British People: Cymbeline and the Anglo-Scottish Union Issue 231
20. “Romans, Countrymen, and Lovers”: Political Love and the Rule of Law in Julius Caesar 256
21. A Lesson from Shakespeare to the Modern Judge on Law, Disobedience, Justifi cation, and Mercy 282
22. Part V. Roundtable
23. Shakespeare’s Laws: A Justice, a Judge, a Philosopher, and an English Professor 301
24. Contributors 323
25. Index 327