Law in the Courts of Love : Literature and Other Minor Jurisprudences

In the wake of current criticisms of the legal profession, Peter Goodrich presents us with a radical alternative vision of the law. He examines past legal systems offering up the possibility of a more humane system.

Law in the Courts of Love traces the literary history and diversity of past legal systems. These ''minor jurisprudences'' range from the spiritual laws of the courts of conscience to the code and judgements of love handed down by women''s courts in medieval France. Professor Goodrich presents the 15th Century Courts of Love in Paris as one instance of an alternative jurisdiction drawn from the diversities of the legal and literary past. Their textual records are correspondingly mixed in genre, being in the form of poems, narratives, plays, treaties and judicial decisions. More broadly, these studies trace certain boundaries of modern law and make up one of many forms of legal knowledge which escape today''s vision of a unitary law. The author believes that the unquesionable faith in a unity law and its distance from person and emotion is precisely what makes impossible the attention to the individual that justice ultimately requires. Law in the Courts of Love shows how the historical diversity of forms and procedures of law can competently form the basis for critical revisions of contemporary legal doctrine and professional practice. This book will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students of law and literature, critical legal studies and legal history, or anyone wishing to specialise in feminist legal theory.