Talk Title: 'Literature in Law'

Discussant: Christine Olando

Abstract: Usual communication between human beings is through the medium of words but literature is that communication which deploys words or language in a manner which pleases the ear, heart or mind or tickles the finer sensibilities in a person and assumes the status of an art. Art is sometimes for art’s sake but on other occasions it is employed as a tool or a technique while speaking or writing about a mundane or a professional subject or issue. The art thus employed essentially boosts expression elevating the text to the status of literature. It is the use of good words or expression which may sometimes transform even a judgment of a court into a piece of literature not only relevant to the parties to the case but also appealing to a bigger audience.

Literature or the use of it is not to be confined or restricted to what the literati, authors, writers, poets or scholars indulge in and Judges in different parts of the world also sometimes quote literature to embellish, embroider or decorate their judgments, refer to literary masterpieces to emphasize or explain a point or even create literature through the use of prose of artistic merit and expressions of high literary value while composing their judgments. There are also instances in the world where Judges have written the entire judgments in poetry. It needs to be understood that writing judgments is an art and not a science, and that is why it is called composing a judgment, and an artist cannot be put to a straightjacket of a particular form or format.

The discussion will refer to many judgments passed by Judges in different parts of the world wherein literature was not only quoted but was sometimes created and at the end of the discussion a question will be posed as to why some Judges go an extra mile to contribute to legal literature or even create it and as to whether the audience approves of such an effort by Judges or not.