From Legal Biography to Legal Life Writing

Broadening Conceptions of Legal History and Socio‐legal Scholarship

Bibliographic Data

ID11449003
AuthorsDavid Sugarman (Law School Lancaster University Lancaster LA1 4YN England, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume42
Issue1
Pages7-33
Publication date2015-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Law and Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0263-323X • E-ISSN: 1467-6478
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-6478.2015.00696.x
OpenAlexW2064608898
LanguageEN
Citations received8

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

Black letter law · Democracy · Discipline · Empirical legal studies · Legal culture · Legal history · Legal opinion · Legal pluralism · Legal profession · Legal realism · Legal research · Legal writing · Political science · Politics · Private law · Public law · Scholarship · Sociology · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Law in Society and Culture · Legal Education and Practice Innovations

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub