Legal Definitions - lego-literary

The term lego-literary describes anything that relates to or explores the intersection between the fields of law and literature.

This can involve analyzing legal themes within literary works, examining how legal systems and concepts are portrayed in fiction, or studying how literary techniques and narrative structures are employed within legal writing and discourse. It highlights the deep connections and mutual influences between these two seemingly distinct disciplines.

Here are a few examples to illustrate this concept:

• Imagine a university course titled "Justice and Narrative in American Fiction." In this course, students might analyze how legal trials, the concept of due process, or the impact of specific laws are depicted in novels like Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird or Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. The professor and students would be engaged in a lego-literary study, exploring how literary works illuminate or critique legal principles and practices.

• Consider a legal scholar who publishes an article examining the rhetorical strategies and persuasive storytelling techniques used by prominent lawyers in their closing arguments during famous trials. This scholar might argue that effective legal advocacy often relies on crafting compelling narratives and employing literary devices to sway a jury or judge. This analysis would be considered lego-literary because it focuses on the literary aspects (rhetoric, narrative) within a legal context (trial arguments).

• Think about a historical study that investigates how the legal system of a particular era influenced the plots and character development in plays or poems written during that time. For instance, a researcher might explore how Elizabethan laws regarding property, marriage, or treason shaped the dramatic conflicts in Shakespeare's tragedies. This type of research is inherently lego-literary, as it delves into the reciprocal relationship between the legal framework of a society and its artistic literary expressions.