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Ohne Schuld und Sühne, Belohnung und Strafe, ohne Verbrechen und Leidenschaft, Opfer und Täter kam die Literatur nie aus und die Literatur der Romantik ist wie die Zeit davor und danach durchzogen von Rechtsfällen. Im Zuge der Aufklärung wuchs das Interesse an Rechtsfällen sowie am Verbrecher und seinen Beweggründen. Doch wandelten sich das Rechtssystem und die Rechtsauffassung im Zeitalter der Romantik entscheidend. Vor allem durch die ‚Begründung der Historischen Rechtsschule‘ erhielt die Rechtswissenschaft eine neue Grundlage; der Code civil galt als Verletzung des nationalen Rechtsbewusstseins: „der eigentliche Sitz des Rechts [sei] das gemeinsame Bewußtseyn des Volkes', glaubte Savigny. Die Beiträge der Rechtshistoriker und Literaturwissenschaftler gehen den Fragen von Recht und Gerechtigkeit, Verbrechen und Strafe in rechtshistorischen Werken, in Literatur, Ästhetik und Sprache, aber auch in der Rechtspraxis nach: Die historische Rechtsschule, besonders Grimm, Puchta und Savigny, der Bedeutungswandel von Rechtswörtern, Achim von Arnim, Clemens und Bettina, Bonaventura, E.T.A. Hoffmann, die Grimmschen Märchen, A.W. Schlegels Shakespeare-Übersetzungen, Kleist, Eichendorff und Tieck sind die exemplarisch verhandelten Themen.

Near the end of the Second World War, new ideas about citizenship, national identity, belonging, and rights emerged as the atrocities of the war – coupled with the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – spurred writers and citizens around the world to think about their responsibilities to their fellow man. Covering British authors and contemporary fiction by migrant writers publishing at mid-century, as well as some photography from the era, Around 1945 is a collection of essays that reveals how literary texts and cultural events modeled human rights issues such as dignity, freedom, sovereignty, and responsibility. Unified by an investigation of the human and cultural aspects of universal rights, these essays show that British writers tested the parameters of citizenship and rights in novelistic form. By imagining duties and rights of citizens in hypothetical contexts, these novels expanded on the legislated entitlements and obligations that make up civic and human identity. To this day the repercussions of 1945 continue to unfold in stories about statehood, refugees, humanitarianism, displacement, and national belonging. At the same time, novels continue to imagine the human person, equal in rights and dignity before the law, yet often compromised by the political exigencies of nation-states that do not recognize legal, political, or human rights. Tracing the rippling consequences of the Second World War from 1945 through the Cold War and into the present, Around 1945 is an extraordinarily rich volume that will alter our perception of pre- and post-war British literature. Contributors include Nadine Attewell (McMaster), Mitchell C. Brown (Dalhousie), Matthew Hart (Columbia), Janice Ho (Colorado), Emily Hyde (Rowan), Peter Kalliney (Kentucky), Marina MacKay (Oxford), Melanie Micir (Washington, St. Louis), Adam Piette (Sheffield) Claire Seiler (Dickinson College), and Ian Whittington (Mississippi).

Das Thema ‚Recht populär‘ umfasst Film und TV ebenso wie Theater, Journalistik und Belletristik, eine Bandbreite, die sich in den Beiträgen widerspiegelt. Rechtspolitische Botschaften in Film und Fernsehen rücken ebenso in den Fokus wie die Wahrnehmung juristischer Berichterstattung in den Medien. Überlegungen zum seriellen Erzählen in ‚Crime Series‘ werden ergänzt durch Untersuchungen der theatralen Seite des Gerichts und zum Verhältnis von Gerichtstheatern und Theatergerichten. Darstellungen des Rechts in Gegenwartsromanen greifen ineinander mit historisch perspektivierten Überlegungen zur ‚Fallgeschichte‘ bis zu von Schirachs Stories, die wiederum zwischen Populärkultur und Trivialität verortet werden. Internationale Vergleiche mit italienischen und US-amerikanischen Formaten bilden eine weitere Ebene. Insgesamt ergibt sich so ein differenziert beleuchtetes Bild von der vielfältigen Präsenz des Rechts in der modernen medialen Alltagskultur.Mit Beiträgen von:Gerhard Besier, Christine Künzel, Fabian Kupper, Stefan Machura, Patrick Meier, Heinz Müller-Dietz, Doris Pichler, Thomas Seibert, Thomas Sprecher, Jochen Vogt

William Shakespeare is inextricably linked with the law. Legal documents make up most of the records we have of his life, and trials, lawsuits, and legal terms permeate his plays. Gathering an extraordinary team of literary and legal scholars, philosophers, and even sitting judges, Shakespeare and the Law demonstrates that Shakespeare's thinking about legal concepts and legal practice points to a deep and sometimes vexed engagement with the law's technical workings, its underlying premises, and its social effects. The book's opening essays offer perspectives on law and literature that emphasize both the continuities and contrasts between the two fields. The second section considers Shakespeare's awareness of common law thinking and common law practice, while the third inquires into Shakespeare's general attitudes toward legal systems. The fourth part of the book looks at how law enters into conversation with issues of politics and community, whether in the plays, in Shakespeare's world, or in our own world. Finally, a colloquy among Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Judge Richard Posner, Martha C. Nussbaum, and Richard Strier covers everything from the ghost in Hamlet to the nature of judicial discretion.

In July 2007, the School of Law at the University of Warwick hosted an international conference on'Shakespeare and the Law'. This was a truly interdisciplinary event, which included contributions from eminent speakers in the fields of English, history, theatre and law. The intention was to provide a congenial forum for the exploration, dissemination and discussion of Shakespeare's evident fascination with and knowledge of law, and its manifestation in his works. The papers included in this volume reflect the diverse academic interests of participants at the conference. The eclectic themes of the edited collection range from analyses of the juristic content of specific plays, as in'Consideration, Contract and the End of The Comedy of Errors','Judging Isabella: Justice, Care and Relationships in Measure for Measure','Law and its Subversion in Romeo and Juliet','Inheritance in the Legal and Ideological Debate of Shakespeare's King Lear'and'The Law of Dramatic Properties in The Merchant of Venice', to more general explorations of Shakespearean jurisprudence, including'Shakespeare and Specific Performance','Shakespeare and the Marriage Contract','The Tragedy of Law in Shakespearean Romance'and'Punishment Theory in the Renaissance: the Law and the Drama'.

This collection features the work of both established and up-and-coming scholars in the UK and US, with contributors including Peter Goodrich, Lorna Hutson, Erica Sheen and David Colclough studying the period of the English Renaissance from the 1520s to the 1660s. This wide-ranging study, working on the edge of new historicism as well as book history, covers topics such as libel/slander and literary debate, legal textual production, authorship and the politics of authorial attribution and theatre and the law.