A Court That Shaped America traces the flesh-and-blood courtroom scenes from the district's first cases in the early nineteenth century through the turn of the millennium. Historical figures—including Mormon leader Joseph Smith, inventor Thomas Edison, and author Mark Twain—as well as contemporary superstars like Michael Jackson and Oprah Winfrey have all had their day in the Northern Illinois court. Some were victorious; some came out scathed. This book examines these great trials and the people behind them to offer a unique look at Chicago and U.S. history.
Languages of Law is an original and comprehensive study of the history, symbols and languages of the common law tradition. While the first part of this stimulating contribution to modern legal theory, “Memory, Precedent and the Writing Systems of Law,” examines the technological, professional and polemical contexts of legal writing as a distinctive system of inscription and documentation, the second part of the text, “Language, Image, Sign and Common Law” moves from historical to substantive analysis. The final chapters concentrate on the visual legitimacy and symbols of law, and advance an original theory of the acceptance of law as a question of the imagery and aesthetics of legal representation. This is a book for students of legal history, legal system and legal method, jurisprudence and sociology of law, and for students of the history of language.
