Davanti alla grande macchina della legge

Abstract

Literature and its representations of the legal world.Remarkable differences between the administration of the law in countries that follow the tradition of the Roman law and those that operate according to Anglo-Saxon customs. The protagonists of the court-room drama: the defendant, the prosecutor, the lawyers, the testifiers, the expert witness, the judge, the jurors, the audience. The machine of the law, its functioning, the atmosphere of the court in their metaphorical representations in literary texts. The frequent difficulty experienced by defendants and audience to understand the machinery of the law. Examples from many literary and filmic texts, from the Book of Job to the novels by Grisham.