Kentucky

From Courier Journal is a very interesting story regarding a "Law and Perspective" course at UofL Law entitled "Law and Literature" taught by attorney Donald Vish:

In most of their classes, they pore over torts, contracts and other exacting areas of the law. But for one evening each week this semester, about two dozen law students have been meeting in a basement classroom at the University of Louisville to study the words of a different set of authorities ? Aeschylus, Jesus, Dante, Shakespeare, O. Henry and others. * * *

The course on ?Law and Literature? shows that courtroom dramas are anything but a modern TV invention.

Authors have been exploring the genre for thousands of years ? whether it's Aeschylus' dramas on justice and vengeance in ancient Greece; the medieval Dante's matching of punishments to crimes in his ?Inferno?; or Charles Dickens' lighter parodies of the law in the 19th century.

?Everything about this course is about the same thing: What is justice?? instructor Donald Vish tells the students at the Brandeis School of Law.

?They'll never be able to get this course out of their minds (even if) they may not be able to use it in the next few years,? he added after the class. ?They know what law and justice look like to lawyers. But I want them to see what it looks like to artists.?