Journal Title

Tulane Law Review

Volume

67

Issue

2

First Page

455

Document Type

Article

Publication Information

1992

Abstract

Both Richard Weisberg and James Boyd White are eminent figures in the academic field of law and literature. As lines between philosophy and literature blur, the stance of “judgment” becomes more like a reflective aesthetic evaluation than a critique through formal logic. Law is, as Weisberg and White agree, more art than science. Yet, for all their contributions to the study of law, including their ostensibly shared realm of mediation, the two create a combative, hierarchic tone of discourse by the near-total exclusion of women from their texts.

Law as conversation is not primarily war through or with words. Rather, it is the free yet necessary activity of community-weaving among people of profound differences. As such, a new timbre of conversation, a new openness, must be spoken for in the study of law. Among the always emerging differences among persons, men are as mysterious and irresistible to women as some men have recognized women to be; and if men could remember both the irresistible part and the mystery, and would open the existing public conversation, they might critique and pointedly ignore each other less violently, and enjoy a new richer company.

Recommended Citation

Emily Fowler Hartigan, From Righteousness to Beauty: Reflections on Poethics and Justice as Translation, 67 Tul. L. Rev. 455 (1992).

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