Stories About Science in Law: Literary and Historical Images of Acquired Expertise

This book introduces a hybrid methodology for approaching literary representations of science in legal contexts. The work draws upon law-and-literature studies - as a critical enterprise to understand and evaluate law both by its focus on literary images of legal processes and institutions, and its use of literary critical methods - and literature-and-science studies - as a parallel, critical enterprise to understand and evaluate science both by its focus of literary images of scientists, and its use of literary critical methods. The book provide an introduction to the field followed by a series of exemplary studies that vary significantly: (1) a collection of short stories by a Spanish scientist (Cajal), (2) a play about science and culture (Ibsen), (3) a survey of lawyer movies involving expert witnesses, (4) a quasi-true-crime "novel" that is critical of old-fashioned psychology in the courtroom (Capote), and (5) a 19th-century medical journal article recounting a failure in the legal system with respect to an alleged arsenic poisoning (Jackson) - each study reveals an aspect of the use of science in law, as well as an aspect of science itself, with reference to the literary source in question.The book presents examples of how literary sources can provide a supplement to our understanding of science in law. Challenging the view that law and science are completely different, insofar as the former is associated with social or communal conventions, rhetorical strategies, and local institutions, the study discusses texts that suggest that science shares those very same features with law.