Shakespeare and the Law: A Conference - A Celebration

9-11 July 2007
University of Warwick

“I am a subject, and challenge law” Richard II, Act II, scene III

The University of Warwick will host an international conference on Shakespeare and the Law from 9-11 July 2007 in association with Warwick Law School and The Capital Centre partnership between The University of Warwick and the Royal Shakespeare Company. The conference will provide a unique forum for scholarly discourse between the major humanities disciplines of law, literature and the performing arts. Confirmed speakers include several leading figures in Shakespearean Scholarship, theatre and the field of law and humanities.

The study of law as a humanities' discipline is concerned with the capacity of human beings to engage with their environment and reform it by the power of imagination expressed through arts which are not scientifically predictable in their operation or susceptible to empirical assessment. In this sense the study of law as a humanities' discipline is distinct from, albeit compatible with, the study of law as a social science. Law and humanities explores the relationship between subjects and the law; “subjects” indicating on the one hand the very human beings subject to the law, and, on the other hand, the humanities disciplines (including literature and drama) through which the human subject has traditionally created and challenged the law. There is no better starting place, or central case, for such a study than the works of William Shakespeare.

Speakers include:

Prof. Jonathan Bate (Warwick)
Gregory Doran (RSC)
Prof. Germaine Greer
Michael Pennington
Prof. Peter Goodrich (Yeshiva University, NYC)
Prof. B. J. Sokol
Dr Mary Sokol

For further information, email the programme organisers:

Paul Raffield: p.raffield@warwick.ac.uk
Gary Watt: gary.watt@warwick.ac.uk