Brooks argues that the law implicitly recognized the power of courtroom storytelling through “formulas by which the law seeks to impose the form and domination of history” (1996: 19). The rules for what is considered relevant narrative in the courtroom include the level of detail and presumed objectivity of testimony, as well as the prohibition of admissible accounts. Assumptions about what makes testimony valid influence the narration and narrative of events that processes want to tell coherently. Moreover, as Coombe points out, the narrative competition begins much earlier than in the dramatic setting of the jury courtroom with the selection of evidence that contributes to the narratives presented in the courtrooms (2001: 46). Similarly, in inquisitorial systems, the prosecutor`s assessment of the illegality of the accused`s actions determines whether a case should be heard; his narrative of facts in a case influences the judge`s “main narrative” (Grunewald 2013:382). But in addition to the role of narrative in causal explanation, stories about the law can play a normative role. By telling a story that explains how the law became what it is, we can also make implicit or explicit normative claims about the goodness or wickedness of the law`s content (or a theory about the law). This article in the Legal Theory Lexicon discusses the normative role of storytelling in law and legal theory. As always, the encyclopedia offers a short introduction to law students interested in legal theory.
“Law and Literature” developed as a critical reaction to the Law-as-Economics movement that prevailed in American legal education in the 1970s and sought to institutionalize a rational decision-making approach (Kayman 2002; Peters, 2005; Olson, 2010, 2012). Law and Literature combines legal protocols with literary narratives to demonstrate the contingent nature of justice. As a result, a type of research called “law in literature” criticizes legal processes using the alternative ethics proposed by literary texts; Another type, called “Law as Literature,” analyzes law as rhetoric and reads legal texts through philological means. Storytelling plays a central role in legal discourse and helps communicate the law, justify legal actions and explain their principles (Fludernik 2010). Documents such as charges, formal disciplinary complaints, briefs, appeal judgments, and legal commentaries contain narrative elements, as do oral opening and closing statements, cross-examinations, and announcements of the verdict by judges. Your narrative should begin with a statement of facts, and if you are writing a formal plea, the statement of facts should include numbered paragraphs – one numbered paragraph for each essential fact. Start by introducing the parties and explaining their roles. For example, “Ms. Smith is a public school teacher who was fired by Mr. Cooley on November 7, 2012.” The presentation of the facts introduces your reader to the actors of your case as well as the relevant locations, which makes the narrative section easier to understand. Normative narratives are common in contemporary legal theory, but the theoretical underpinnings of the claim that narratives have normative meaning are rarely explicit. The purpose of this article in the Lexikon Rechtstheorie was to give an introduction to these questions and to give readers a basis for reflection.
Another form of narrative analysis examines how literary narratives and their forms are involved in the evolution of legal processes. This work focused mainly on the 18th and 19th centuries; It combines gender research with narratology and historical studies of judicial proceedings. For example, Bender (1987) argues that the English novel anticipated the end of public executions; Grossman (2002) argues that forensic novels have created a new awareness of the courtroom as a place for telling individual and conflicting stories. Scholars such as Miller (1988), Thomas (1987, 2007) and Gladfelder (1997) show how protocols of law and citizenship have intersected with fictional prose and its representation of conscience. Her work shows that narrative techniques intersect with changing procedures as well as readers` conceptions of self, confirming Cover`s thesis that legal narratives are integrated into cultural narratives.