Project
Law and Literature Hub
Unit(s) of assessment: Law
School: Nottingham Law School
Overview
Did you ever wonder whether Dr Faustus could have escaped his contract with the demon Mephistopheles, how Agatha Christie’s Dumb Witness relates to twentieth century inheritance law, or if Bilbo Baggins lawfully obtained the one ring from Golum?
The Law and Literature Hub brings together staff and PGR students interested in this area. It covers studies on:
1) The representation of law and lawyers within fiction and poetry;
2) The two way traffic of ideas between literature and folk tales on the one hand, and legal thought on the other; and
3) The use of creative writing to examine legal questions within courtrooms, scholarship and teaching.
If you have any questions, ideas, or potential projects related to the Law and Literature Hub, please contact staff listed in the 'Related staff' section at the bottom of the page.
News and Events
Law and Literature Seminar - March 18th 2026
The programme included:
Jane Ching - Amazons at Common Law
Jane Jarman - "To speak the word/and every latent double in the word..." Stevens and Eliot and the battle with the latent double in law and poetry
Laurence Atkin-Teillet - A Requiem for the Forsaken: Morgan Le Fay and the Crimes of Camelot
Shelia Hamilton Macdonald - Rich Spinsters and the (Un)Deserving Heir in Agatha Christie’s Dumb Witness
Ariel Liberman - Lovecraft and Legal Education: The Value of Introducing Students to a “Weird” Legal System
Helen Hall - Gentleman Ghosthunters and the Law: M R James, H G Wells and William Hope Hodgson
You can view the recording here.
