Shakespeare and the Law

• Credit value: 15 credits at Level 6
• Convenor: Dr Piyel Haldar
• Tutor: Professor Paul Raffield (National Teaching Fellow; Professor Emeritus, School of Law, University of Warwick)
• Assessment: a 3500-word reflective diary or commonplace book (100%)

In this module we examine three Shakespeare plays in which trials are staged: Richard II, The Merchant of Venice and Measure for Measure, focusing equally on early modern legal history and theatrical performance.

We will consider the Tudor laws that underpin Shakespeare’s sensational dramatisations, thinking about treason and the emergence of constitutional law (in Richard II); the primacy of contract law, the legal status of aliens, the agency of women, and the constitutional relationship between crown and judiciary (in The Merchant of Venice); and magistracy, morality and the development of criminal law (in Measure for Measure).

Indicative syllabus

• Richard II: imperium, treason and rebellion: the treason trial in Jacobethan England and the enforcement of political conformity
• Richard II: the king’s two bodies and the judges - political theology and the courts of common law
• Richard II: the iconic image of kingship and the birth of constitutional law
• The Merchant of Venice: English law and the rise of contract in fin-de-siècle, Elizabethan England
• The Merchant of Venice: Rex is Lex? The separation of powers in early modern England
• The Merchant of Venice: commerce, London and xenophobia: Jews and the law
• Measure for Measure: criminal law and the enforcement of morals in Jacobean England
• Measure for Measure: justitia, res publica and the city-state
• Measure for Measure: the drama of the courtroom: forensic rhetoric and the theatre of law

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• analyse the relationship between Shakespeare’s plays and the law, and the performative function of the trial in the playwright’s dramaturgy
• gain a detailed historical perspective of developments in English law during the early modern period
• reflect on your own and others’ creative processes
• critically evaluate a text with an understanding of the creative process in mind
• understand the relationship between history, culture and theatrical performance
• address the uses of evidence and documentation in the course of study.