Narrative and Metaphor in the Law, Edited by Michael Hanne and Robert Weisberg, Due in 2018 From Cambridge University Press @Stanford @AucklandUni

Forthcoming from Cambridge University Press in 2018: Narrative and Metaphor in the Law, edited by Michael Hanne, University of Auckland, and Robert Weisberg, Stanford University. Here is a description of the book's contents.

It has long been recognized that court trials, both criminal and civil, in the common law system, operate around pairs of competing narratives told by opposing advocates. In recent years, however, it has increasingly been argued that narrative flows in many directions and through every form of legal theory and practice. Interest in the part played by metaphor in the law, including metaphors for the law, and for many standard concepts in legal practice, has also been strong, though research under the metaphor banner has been much more fragmentary. In this book, for the first time, a distinguished group of legal scholars, collaborating with specialists from cognitive theory, journalism, rhetoric, social psychology, criminology, and legal activism, explore how narrative and metaphor are both vital to the legal process. Together, they examine topics including concepts of law, legal persuasion, human rights law, gender in the law, innovations in legal thinking, legal activism, creative work around the law, and public debate around crime and punishment.

Takes the form of nine conversations between pairs of eminent scholars in different disciplines

Opens up discussion for the first time of the joint roles of narrative and metaphor in the law

Topics include legal persuasion, gender in the law, judicial opinions and public debate around crime and punishment

Includes contributions by Michael Hanne, Robert Weisberg, Greta Olson, Lawrence Rosen, Michael R. Smith, Raymond W. Gibbs, Simon Stern, Peter Brooks, Linda L. Berger, Kathryn M. Stanchi, Roberto H. Potter, Dahlia Lithwick, L. David Ritchie, Katherine Young, Bernadette Meyler, Lawrence Joseph, Meredith Wallis, Mari Matsuda.