Law and Literature Notes | B.B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Semester 4 | SPPU | munotes

Contents

Module 01 Plays

1. The Significance of Literature in Understanding the Law 1
2. The Merchant of Venice: the Play, and Why a Law Course Sets It 5
3. The Merchant of Venice: Act I 9
4. The Merchant of Venice: Act II 15
5. The Merchant of Venice: Act III 20
6. The Merchant of Venice: the Trial Scene, Act IV Scene i 26
7. The Merchant of Venice: the Rings, and Act V 34
8. Portia, Antonio, Bassanio and the Others 40
9. Shylock 45
10. The Bond as a Contract 50
11. Mercy, Equity and the Letter of the Law 55
12. The Alien Statute and the Sentence on Shylock 60
13. Themes of The Merchant of Venice 65
14. Reference to Context: The Merchant of Venice 69
15. Justice: Galsworthy, and a Play About the Machine of the Law 77
16. Justice: Act I, the Cheque 82
17. Justice: Act II, the Trial at the Assizes 87
18. Justice: Act III, the Prison 93
19. Justice: Act IV, Two Years Later 99
20. Characters in Justice 104
21. The Law in Justice: Forgery, the Insanity Plea, the Sentence and the Licence 109
22. Themes and Reference to Context: Justice 115

Module 02 Short Stories

1. Before the Law: Kafka's Parable of the Man from the Country 124
2. The Benefit of the Doubt: the Story 129
3. The Benefit of the Doubt: Justice and Evidence 139
4. The Web of Circumstance: Chesnutt's Story of Ben Davis 147
5. The Weed: Amrita Pritam's Story of Angoori 152

Module 03 Prose Works

1. Bacon, Of Judicature: the Essay 156
2. Of Judicature: the Four Parts of a Judge's Duty 160
3. Of Judicature: Bacon in Practice, and How to Answer on It 166
4. Gandhi: Some Reminiscences of the Bar 170
5. Gandhi: Truth in Practice, and Professional Ethics 176
6. Ambedkar: Why Indian Labour is Determined to Win the War 181
7. Ambedkar: the Argument, Nationalism and the New Social Order 186
8. A Woman Judge in the Capital: Leila Seth on the Delhi High Court 192

Module 04 Poetry

1. Where the Mind is Without Fear: Tagore's Prayer for a Free Nation 195
2. Law Like Love: Auden's Many Answers to What Law Is 198
3. The Old Playhouse: Kamala Das on Marriage and the Loss of Self 201
4. Still I Rise: Maya Angelou's Poem of Dignity and Resistance 204

Module 05 Legal Text as Literature for Analytical Study

1. Reading a Judgment: Ratio, Obiter and the Weight of a Precedent 207
2. Balaji Raghavan v. Union of India: The Judgment as Narrative and Argument 212
3. S. Gopal Reddy v. State of Andhra Pradesh: The Judgment as Narrative and Argument 217