Meeting Shakespeare at the Bar: Reading the Bard Through the Lens of the Law

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The renowned plays of William Shakespeare may not initially seem to be connected to the legal profession, but digging just a little reveals their parallels. Shakespeare's works, when viewed through the lens of law, provide insights into how he viewed the institution of the law itself, not only as a vehicle for achieving an equitable and ordered society, but as a cudgel that is subject to manipulation and abuse. In these plays, the absence of law generally signals serious trouble, but its presence doesn’t necessarily make things better, and its strict enforcement often leads to disaster. Reading these plays in this way also offers insights into how Shakespeare thought about trials and the various participants in them – lawyers, judges, witnesses, and parties. Shakespeare painted a complex portrait of these proceedings and their players, a portrait made still richer when viewed from the perspective of current litigation practices.

But reading Shakespeare through this lens draws us into some less obvious territory as well. Shakespeare was interested in the connection between mental health, competency, and moral responsibility - so is the law. Shakespeare was interested in marginalized people and the stigmas and prejudices that burden them - so is the law. Shakespeare was interested in evidence and in what counts as proof of a fact - so is the law. Shakespeare was interested in the problem of role morality, where behavior we would otherwise think ethically obnoxious finds its justification in the role someone holds within a society. The law is interested in that, too, as are the people who write the ethics rules that govern lawyers.

Author and professor Len Niehoff's Meeting Shakespeare at the Bar: Reading the Bard Through the Lens of the Law is an invaluable guide for anyone interested in considering thought-provoking questions about all the ways the law touches our lives, and debating them with one of the English language's most beloved storytellers.

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