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From Legal Biography to Legal Life Writing: Broadening Conceptions of Legal History and Socio‐legal Scholarship
Author(s) -
Sugarman David
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of law and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.263
H-Index - 48
eISSN - 1467-6478
pISSN - 0263-323X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6478.2015.00696.x
Subject(s) - legal writing , scholarship , empirical legal studies , legal profession , legal realism , legal history , discipline , law , legal research , legal culture , sociology , political science , legal opinion , legal pluralism , democracy , politics , public law , private law , black letter law
This article describes and analyses how legal life writing has grown to embrace a wider range of subjects, sources, and methods – from eminent white male judges to women, minorities, displaced persons, and outsiders – and explains and justifies it as an intellectual project. It considers some of life writing's challenges, shortcomings, and dilemmas, suggesting ways forward. The aim is to advance an important, inter‐disciplinary perspective in the making: namely, a more pluralistic, democratic conception of legal life writing, which offers new ways of advancing legal history and socio‐legal scholarship, encouraging inter‐disciplinary dialogue. It is argued that legal life writing demonstrates the value of historical thinking in comprehending law, politics, and culture; it can also supplement the study of law, helping legal historians and socio‐legal scholars to develop new skills and embrace a wider range of participants and audiences, thereby enhancing their ability to engage with public issues and public history.