Call For Participation

Global Harmony and the Rule of Law
24th IVR World Congress
Special Workshop no. 28:
Law and Literature
Coordinator:
Enrico Pattaro
Honorary President of ISLL – Italian Society for Law and Literature
E-mail: cirsfid.lawandliterature@unibo.it
In collaboration with:
Carla Faralli, ISLL President
M. Paola Mittica, ISLL Coordinator
The topic chosen for this 24rd IVR Congress—global harmony and the
rule of law—is one that we think lends itself to being effectively
investigated on the interdisciplinary approach that has recently been
emerging out of the field of study known as Law and Literature.
The growing interest that Law and Literature has been drawing beyond
the United States, not only in Europe but also in the East and in Latin
America, has recently prompted us to establish an association—the
Italian Society for Law and Literature (ISLL), on the Web at
www.lawandliterature.org—whose first objective is to promote reflection
on law by looking at it in connection with literature, taking also into
account the contribution that may come from the broader realm of Law
and the Humanities.
The initiative immediately got off to a good international start, with
many scholars joining who represent the philosophy, sociology, and
history of law, as well as a range of legal and literary disciplines; and
there are also in this group a number of jurists and of men and women of
letters. Indeed, from many quarters a need is being expressed to observe
the law and the different systems of law from a more comprehensive
perspective capable of affording a greater understanding of the legal
system in relation to its factual reality and to its possible functions.
Law and Literature became the subject of a special workshop in the last
IVR congress, held in Krakow in 2007 under the excellent stewardship of
François Ost and Jeanne Gaaker.
This year’s workshop is meant to proceed in continuity with last year’s as
concerns those activities and objectives that are more specifically
connected with Law and Literature, but this is done in such a way as to
contribute to the overall topic the congress is devoted to.
As is known, Law and Literature has developed around three core areas,
these being law in literature, law as literature, and the regulation of
literature by law. While this last area has not gained universal
recognition, the first two (law in literature and law as literature) have
flourished with a wealth of approaches and subjects of study, and these
(at their current stage of development) call for a deep epistemological
and methodological reflection as a way to bring to fruition the
experiences of the past and to open new avenues for the future.
In addition to the subjects more closely connected with Law and
Literature, we also have the use of Law and Literature in teaching: This
further development is valued for its ability to expand our knowledge of
law as well as the jurist’s understanding of ethics. And this is taken up
with a view to making Law and Literature a subject of academic study, as
is already happening at law schools across the United States.
For these reasons it seems important that, in taking up the specific issues
covered under the convention’s overall heading of global harmony and
the rule of law, the possibility should emerge of also exploring the new
directions just briefly outlined.
By way of a final note, it will also be possible to find a wide audience for
the work emerging out of the workshop, this by publishing the work in
international journals in legal philosophy and the general theory of law.
Two leading journals, in particular, have said the papers presented at the
workshop may be submitted to them for possible publication. They are

Law and Literature
online at www.ucpressjournals.com/journal.asp?j=lal

The International Journal for the Semiotics of Law
online at www.springer.com/law/journal/11196?detailsPage=description

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