1st Edition

Law and the Passions Why Emotion Matters for Justice

By Julia Shaw Copyright 2020
    206 Pages
    by Routledge

    206 Pages
    by Routledge

    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.

    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



    Biography

    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).