On the Tenth Anniversary of Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature

Abstract

Last Spring I was honored to be elected President of the Law and Humanities Institute, an organization linked structurally and ideologically to the Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature. The LHI sponsors colloquia, lectures, literary and legal salons, as well as other interdisciplinary, scholarly events, which are often published in the journal as Proceedings or as individual articles. The journal, which is the repository of significant scholarly studies on a wide range of legal and literary subjects, is the inspirational and informational source for many of LHI's events. While reading a 1993 volume of the journal dedicated to The Merchant ofVenice, I was inspired to organize an international symposium on Law and the Arts, which gathered together leaders in the field of Law and Literature. They witnessed and commented on the Retrial of the Merchant of Venice: Shylock v. Antonio on Appeal. This production, staged again at the New York City Bar Association one year later, consisted of several segments: the performance of the trial scene in Act IV of the play, the writing and publication of briefs and reply briefs for the Appellant and Appellee in the New York Law Journal, the staging of the actual trial before seven judges including two federal judges, the theater critic of the Daily News, law professors, and Shakespeare scholars. The Retrial of the Merchant of Venice attracted a standing room only crowd of more than two hundred people in the Great Hall of the New York City Bar Association a testimony to the intrinsic value of the Law and Literature Movement. The two hour production was a truly memorable event in the annals of literary history simply because it focused on the legal issues of a literary masterpiece. This unusual production of The Merchant of Venice involved key players of the journal without whose intellectual rigor, experience in the law, and keen literary sensitivity this happening would not have taken place. I am truly proud to be a member of the team of the LHI and a contributor to the journal because the creative energy of these people has proven to be contagious as well as