Dr Seuss and Academia

Sometimes I think we in academia might possibly take pop culture too seriously, as when we study Dr. Seuss for his political and environmental influence.  But then I remember that my co-authors and I cited The Cat In the Hat in the footnote of an article a while back (see p. 1074, fn. 181). Never mind.

Horton's Whos

Jorge L. Contreras, American University College of Law, has published No Matter How Small ... Property, Autonomy and State in Horton Hears a Who! at 58 New York Law School Law Review 603 (2014). Here is the abstract.

This essay was presented at New York Law School Law Review's 2013 Symposium "Exploring Civil Society through the Writings of Dr. Seuss". It explores property law concepts that appear in Dr. Seuss's classic children's book "Horton Hears a Who!" and analyzes their relationship to the author's personal history and the sociopolitical landscape of post-war America. 

Download the essay from SSRN at the link.

Dr. Seuss and Children's Rights

Jonathan Todres, Georgia State University College of Law and Sarah Higinbotham, Georgia State University, have published A Person's a Person: Children's Rights in Children's Literature. Here is the abstract.

Although the Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history, children’s rights are still seen in many circles as novel and quaint ideas but not serious legal theory. The reality, however, is that the realization of children’s rights is vital not only for childhood but for individuals’ entire lives. Similarly, although the books children read and have read to them are a central part of their childhood experience, so too has children’s literature been ignored as a rights-bearing discourse and a means of civic socialization. We argue that children’s literature, like all narratives that contribute to our moral sense of the world, help children construct social expectations and frame an understanding of their own specific rights and responsibilities. Arguing that literature is a source of law for children, we explore children’s literature with a view to examining what children learn about their own rights, the rights of others, and the role of rights more broadly in a democratic society. Using Dr. Seuss as a test case, this Article explores the role of children’s literature in children’s rights discourses. This Article also examines recent empirical work on the benefits of human rights education, connecting that research with law and literature perspectives. Ultimately, this Article aims to connect and build upon the fields of children’s rights law, law and literature, children’s literature criticism, human rights, and cultural studies to forge a new multidisciplinary sub-field of study: children’s rights and children’s literature.

The full text is not available from SSRN. 

Baby, Esquire

Alyssa A. DiRusso, Samford University Cumberland School of Law, and Letitia Van Campen have published Law and Literature Junior: Lawyers in Books for Young Children at 11 Whittier Journal of Child & Family Advocacy 39 (2012). Here is the abstract.

Are children’s perceptions of lawyers an open book? The genre of law and literature has demonstrated the power that popular texts hold in shaping societal perceptions of law, but little attention has been given to little readers. This Article explores the perspectives children have of lawyers and how books for young children may reflect or affect those perspectives. A unique collaboration between a law professor and a children’s librarian, this Article reviews a variety of books intended for preschool and early elementary readers. Several themes and narratives emerge from these texts, telling stories of lawyers as historical heroes or workaday joes. The books promote ideals – realistic or unrealistic – relating to the transience of legal practice, the motivation and character of lawyers, and the diversity of the legal profession. The relative absence of relatable fictional lawyers in books for young children is also notable. Outside of books, the relationships between lawyers and children are too often less than positive. Lending greater attention to the books that shape perspectives of lawyers may foster happier endings to these real-life stories.

 Download the article from SSRN at the link.