The Postmodern Character And Theoretical Value Of The Law And Literature Movement

The law and literature movement, which can be traced back to the Law School in the USA in 1970's, made a rapid progress in 1980's and was regarded as a branch of the postmodern legal movement. It distinguishes itself from the previous studies about the law and literature by forming a legal genre based on the common viewpoints. Mostly the law and literature movement criticises the traditional legal viewpoints so it is considered to be negatory, but constructive when think of its advantages of widening our horizon in the study of legislation. In fact, the purpose of the research is to release and highlight the positive elements as well as its value in the law and literature movement.The paper, approximately 27,000 words, is divided into five parts to answer two questions. One is why the law and literature movement was able to become a legal genre. The other one is what the value is of this movement.The link between law and literature, which is the basement of the movement, is conducted at the first chapter. Two aspects are illustrated from the view of scholars who ever participated in this movement. One is between literature text and legal study, the other is between legal text and literature study. Thereby the movement is clarified to two catalogues as "law in literature" and "law as literature".The reason why this movement is regarded as a branch of postmodern legal movement is argued at the second chapter. In the first place, the law and literature movement shows the conflicts and paradoxes in the views among the scholars who come from different background. Secondly, in "law in literature " there are two postmodern characters which are to lay stress on legal ethic and to pay attention to the puny groups. Furthermore, in "law as literature" there are more postmodern characters which appear in the links between law and story, between law and interpreting, between law and language as well.What is the background of this movement, theoretically? The third chapter is designed to answer this question. The possibilities rest with the influence of the postmodern philosophy and postmodern literature. Non-rationalism, non-centralization and uncertainty become the base of this movement, at the same time hermeneutic, linguistical turnaround and the amalgamation among multi-subjects have a hold on its formation and development. On the other hand, postmodern literature affects the movement much more because postmodernism is born out of literature and in company with literature.At the forth part, I intend to explain the value of the law and literature movement. The law and literature movement argues some essential characters against the traditional legal opinions such as certainty, universality, objectivity and neutrality, thus it attacks and challenges the traditional jurisprudence. At the same time, it brings us a few new thoughts and guides us to a new filed where there are many innovative moot points by which we may get ahead in legal study and reminds us to think renewedly some important questions such as the legal paradigm, the legal value and legal naturalization; therefore it shows positive effects . We should recognize the pros and cons brought by the law and literature movement with impersonality and rationality and keep clear-headed to its failure because of the lack of legal practice. Finally the introduction of the situation in the study filed of law and literature and the research to postmodernism jurisprudence in China is provided. Chinese scholars have been studying the links between law and literature for a long time, but their perspective is different from the law and literature movement. To a certain extent, the introducing studies are more popular rather than the critical scrutiny. Chinese scholars own the different attitudes towards the law and literature movement and the majority accepts the point of view of this movement. Thereafter, the research in this respect is making in depth and further studies are expected.