March 12, 2013

Dostoyevsky's Legacy

Brian Christopher Jones sends me this post from the blog Misleading Law of the Week. It discusses the Crime and Punishment (Scotland) Act, 1997. Dr. Jones points out that the name of the Act recalls the title of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's classic work Crime and Punishment. Notes Dr. Jones:

When Fyodor Dostoyevsky penned his classic text Crime and Punishment in 1866, he probably never thought that its title would be attached to pieces of legislation or be so culturally prevalent. Over a century later, however, the Westminster Parliament enacted the Crime and Punishment (Scotland) Act 1997, thus inscribing the provocative name of the author's novel into the UK statute book. While the phrase "crime and punishment" has become ubiquitous in popular culture throughout the years, placing it as the title of an official piece of legislation is much different than putting the label on a video game or as the title to a Dawson's Creek episode...or, so it would seem. 

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