Dr Alexandra Juster | A New Method for Bridging the Gap Between Law and Literature

Dr Juster’s method focuses on examining how law is represented within literature, rather than studying law as a form of literature, or the legal regulations governing literature. This approach allows for a deeper exploration of how authors incorporate legal themes and concepts into their fictional worlds.

The method involves carefully extracting the fictional legal discourse from literary texts and comparing it to real-world legal systems. This process, which Dr Juster terms ‘counterfactual contrast’, allows researchers to determine how closely the fictional portrayal of law aligns with actual legal practice and principles.

To demonstrate the practical application of her method, Dr Juster analysed five contemporary literary works, each touching on different areas of law that have been underexplored in previous interdisciplinary research. These include French anti-terrorism law, Albanian customary law, Jewish Talmudic law, Corsican feudal law, and German asylum law.

By applying the juridical counterfactual method to these diverse texts, numerous points of intersection between law and literature were revealed. This approach not only enhances our understanding of the literary works themselves, but also provides valuable insights into the legal systems they depict.

One of the key benefits of Dr Juster’s method is its potential to improve communication between literary scholars and legal experts. By providing a structured framework for analysis, it creates a common ground for interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration.

Dr Juster’s research opens up exciting new possibilities for the field of law and literature. As this interdisciplinary area continues to grow, her juridical counterfactual method may prove to be a valuable tool for scholars seeking to explore the complex relationship between legal systems and their literary representations.

By bridging the gap between these two disciplines, the work contributes to a richer understanding of both law and literature, highlighting the ways in which each field can inform and illuminate the other.