Nomos and Form: Reading A Jury of Her Peers

Abstract

This chapter offers a reading of the inclusion of Susan Glaspell's short story, A Jury of Her Peers, in the casebook, Procedure. What does it mean that the editors turn to a secular, literary narrative to ground a consideration of “The Problem of Judgment?” How should we read the irony of the reading instructions they provide, which reproduce the blindness to form – to the significance of “trifles” – that the text describes? How do we read literature in the context of law? More specifically, what does attention to the form of the story yield for an understanding of legal judgment?

Citation

Anderson, M. (2012), "Nomos and Form: Reading A Jury of Her Peers", Sarat, A. (Ed.) Special Issue: The Discourse of Judging (Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, Vol. 58), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 101-137. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1059-4337(2012)0000058008