Kill All the Lawyers?: Shakespeare's Legal Appeal.

• Author: Traskos, Kevin T.

On October 12, 1991, near the end of a long day of televised hearings of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Alan Simpson read the following lines from Shakespeare to Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas:

Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,

Is the immediate jewel of their souls,

Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;

'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands.

But he that filches from me my good name

Robs me of that which not enriches him

And makes me poor indeed.(1)

These lines, evoking the pain of impugned reputation, seemed to express Senator Simpson's sympathy for Thomas at a moment when Professor Anita Hill's accusations had put Thomas's reputation under exacting scrutiny. But, as Daniel Kornstein(2) points out in his new book, Kill All the Lawyers? Shakespeare's Legal Appeal, these words from Othello are spoken by the scheming Iago, who slyly emphasizes the importance of reputation to Othello just before falsely suggesting that the flirtations of Othello's wife Desdemona have put Othello's own reputation in jeopardy (p. 157). Kornstein suggests that a listener aware of this dramatic context might see Senator Simpson as an Iago, "placing each word carefully in the ear of Judge Thomas [not to soothe him but] to inflame his anger against [his] accuser" (pp. 156-57).

Kornstein's book explains the dramatic context surrounding many Shakespearean lines often quoted by lawyers. In so doing, Kornstein organizes his book according to Shakespeare's "major legal themes" (p. xvi). Each chapter begins with a brief description of the characters and plot of a particular Shakespeare play; Kornstein then explains the themes in that play one by one. As he presents them, these themes are often independent and unrelated. For example, Chapter Three on Measure for Measure includes sections on subjects ranging from "Law and Morality" and "Privacy" to "Dead-Letter Statutes" and "Cruel and Unusual Punishment" (pp. 35-64). The autonomy of these sections lends the book an encyclopedic feel. Kornstein himself acknowledges in the Prologue that his book seems like the beginning to an "encyclopedia on the subject of Shakespeare and the law" (p. xvii).

So what is this subject of Shakespeare and the law? Kornstein does not explicitly describe this broad and ambitious project. He admits that his book might be criticized for not elaborating "enough about Shakespeare's life, or the law, or each play, or the theories of how we can make the connections," and he preempts that criticism, saying, "To that charge I plead no contest" (p. xvii). After apologizing for not focusing on these issues in his book, he never quite explains what issues he will emphasize. Early on, he suggests a few possible foci, dwelling in turn on the law and literature movement, Shakespeare's life, and his own relationship to Shakespeare's work. None of these introductory discussions, however, accurately delineates the actual approach Kornstein takes in describing the major legal themes of Shakespeare's plays.

Kornstein first presents his book as a law and literature project. In Chapter One, he positions himself as a proponent of the law and literature movement, which promotes the use of law and literature to inform each other (pp. 3-11). He claims that law often serves up "the stuff of literature" and that literature clarifies our understanding of the law and "move[s] more hearts and minds" than the law (pp. 4, 8). In describing this reciprocal relationship, Kornstein does not explain how it relates to his project. He insists that the connection between law and literature is "a field itself worthy of study," but he does not define the limits of that field (p. 9). Kornstein apparently appeals to the law and literature movement to justify his topic and not to borrow any specific critical approach.

Second, Kornstein attempts to explain how Shakespeare knew so much about law (pp. 11-21). This biographical digression also fails to explain his focus. In fact, Kornstein expressly disavows the notion that his project is "to speculate on the biography of the Bard" (p. xvi). Nevertheless, relying on evidence from W. Nicholas Knight's book Shakespeare's Hidden Life,(3) he argues that certain social and personal circumstances may have led Shakespeare to develop a particular interest in the law. For example, Kornstein first suggests that Shakespeare and the other playwrights of his time may have developed legal themes in order to appeal to the...