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The University of Texas at Austin School of Law

Good and Evil in Art and Law

  • Semester: Spring 2008
  • Course ID: 279M
  • Credit Hours: 2
  • Unique: 28325

Course Information

  • Grading Method: Pass/Fail Mandatory

Registration Information

  • Upperclass-only elective

Meeting Times

Day Time Location
MON, TUE, WED, THU, FRI 11:30 am - 12:20 pm TNH 3.142

Evaluation Method

Type Date Time Location
Early exam February 29, 2008 1:00 pm A-I in 2.137
J-Z in 2.138

Description

The course will examine the ways art (mainly literature, but also music and pictorial art) law deal in their own distinct but overlaping ways with the notions of good and evil. It adopts a relativisitic approach, arguing that what is good or evil can change depending upon the angle - politcal, moral, religious, aesthetic - one choses to adopt when examining these notions. Attention is also paid to the fact that they can also mutate with the passage of time so what was once bad may become acceptable or even good. Though law is secreted in almost all works of literature, the way artists and writers deal with legal issues is unlikely to influence legal reasoning. But the study of literature does enhance human imagination, broadens one's general culture, and can enrich the ways lawyers will deal with humans and the problems they create and encounter in their lives. The book fits in the contemporary genre of "law and literature", nowadays taught increasingly in American Law Schools and Liberal Arts Deprtments. By being focused on these two notions - cardinal to both disciplines - the book also represents the first, sepecific, comparativre, and scholarly attempt to study in logical juxtaposition the way these two disciplines deal with these notions. The discussions will be accompanied by the playing of music and the showing of pcitures and DVD selected extracts from programmes. Dealing with related subjects.

Instructors

Headshot of Markesinis, Basil S Markesinis, Basil S
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