Body and Soul under the Law, and the Response from Law and Literature in Bartleby, the Scrivener and Billy Budd, Sailor Symposium: The Failure of the Word

Authors

Thane Rosenbaum, Fordham University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Cardozo Law Review

Volume

26

Publication Date

2004

Keywords

Bartleby, the Scrivener, Billy Budd, Herman Melville, law and literature

Abstract

The values of the American legal system, and the annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, have at least one thing in common: both are unquestionably, if not shamelessly, body conscious. Nothing triggers legal exposure with greater certainty than an injury to the human body. The body is the locus of the law's remedial obsessions. Unless the body is bruised, some scar is left, an essential piece of anatomy is altered, or some damage takes place in a material, external sense to objects that have definable, tangible characteristics, the law is without moral force or conviction.

Recommended Citation

Thane Rosenbaum, Body and Soul under the Law, and the Response from Law and Literature in Bartleby, the Scrivener and Billy Budd, Sailor Symposium: The Failure of the Word, 26 Cardozo L. Rev. 2425 (2004-2005)
Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/faculty_scholarship/197