Je ne blâme ni approuve, j’observe
Stendhal
Focusing on what unites us
Law and literature have been intertwined throughout history, offering interesting debates about justice, rights and responsibilities. Great works of world literature reflect these dilemmas in memorable ways. In this article, we explore some key examples where law takes center stage in the narrative.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein raises questions about the nature of the person. Is the monster a person with rights and responsibilities? Is he responsible for his crimes, or is his creator?
Another classic, The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Is Jekyll’s delegation of power to Hyde valid? And his will? The conflict of identity and responsibility also appears in other novels such as Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, which examine guilt and responsibility.
Goethe’s Faust raises one of the most famous contracts in literature: a pact with the devil. Here the legal question arises as to the validity of a contract that commits the soul for eternity and whether the contractual obligations are really equivalent.
Charles Dickens‘ novels address the rights of minors and social injustices, as in David Copperfield and Oliver Twist. In addition, authors such as Victor Hugo in Les Miserables and Alejo Carpentier in The Age of Enlightenment examine personal property, slavery and social struggles.
Finally, the crime novel and the judicial genre present us with intricate cases of criminal and civil law. From The Postman Always Rings Twice to the investigations of Sherlock Holmes or Maigret, questions of justice, rights and contracts are explored.
Civil, commercial and criminal law permeates world literature, reflecting the complexity of human and social relations. As law is part of life, so is literature.
Conclusion
As long as there is society and literature, it will remind us that, in the end, law, like the great myths of literature, never dies, it simply rethinks itself. That is the spirit of The Lighthouse Team.
