‘Hell has no flames, only windows that won’t open’: justice as escape in law and literature

IF 0.3 Q3 LAW

Law and Humanities Pub Date : 2019-07-03 DOI:10.1080/17521483.2019.1670900

D. Gurnham

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引用次数: 2

Abstract

ABSTRACT Struggles for justice are commonly articulated in literature and drama through metaphors of physical encumbrance (of being cramped, constrained, entangled and mired) and escape (to open landscapes and a view of the horizon and sky). What is less well known or observed is that this metaphorical opposition of encumbrance/escape plays an important role in legal language too. This article traces the appearance of this metaphor across some key moments in English criminal law in which injustice is conceptualized metaphorically in terms of being held up, kept down or back, etc. and that achieving a just outcome necessitates shaking off the encumbrance and getting free. Through a close reading of some important legal judgments, it shows how establishing this intersection between law and literature helps to advance our understanding of the plausibility and persuasiveness of legal language. The article applies this insight to producing a new reading of the Supreme Court’s recent reworking of dishonesty in Ivey v Genting Casinos [2017] SC 67, as well as a novel re-examination of established and apparently familiar authorities on recklessness and excuses to murder.

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“地狱没有火焰，只有不会打开的窗户”：法律和文学中的正义

在文学和戏剧中，为正义而斗争通常是通过隐喻身体上的障碍(被束缚、束缚、纠缠和陷入困境)和逃避(到开阔的风景和地平线和天空的视野)来表达的。不太为人所知或观察到的是，这种累赘/逃避的隐喻对立在法律语言中也起着重要作用。本文追溯了这一隐喻在英国刑法中的一些关键时刻的出现，在这些时刻，不公正被隐喻地概念化为被支撑、压制或退缩等，而要达到公正的结果，就必须摆脱阻碍并获得自由。通过对一些重要的法律判决的仔细阅读，它显示了如何建立法律和文学之间的这种交集有助于我们提高对法律语言的合理性和说服力的理解。本文运用这一见解，对最高法院最近对艾维诉云顶赌场(Ivey v Genting Casinos [2017] SC 67)一案的不诚实行为进行了重新解读，并对已建立的、显然熟悉的关于鲁莽和谋杀借口的权威进行了新颖的重新审视。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Law and Humanities LAW-

CiteScore

1.00

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Law and Humanities is a peer-reviewed journal, providing a forum for scholarly discourse within the arts and humanities around the subject of law. For this purpose, the arts and humanities disciplines are taken to include literature, history (including history of art), philosophy, theology, classics and the whole spectrum of performance and representational arts. The remit of the journal does not extend to consideration of the laws that regulate practical aspects of the arts and humanities (such as the law of intellectual property). Law and Humanities is principally concerned to engage with those aspects of human experience which are not empirically quantifiable or scientifically predictable. Each issue will carry four or five major articles of between 8,000 and 12,000 words each. The journal will also carry shorter papers (up to 4,000 words) sharing good practice in law and humanities education; reports of conferences; reviews of books, exhibitions, plays, concerts and other artistic publications.