History, Memory, and the Law (The Amherst Series in Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought)

337 Pages·1999·18.31 MB·English

by  Prof. Austin Sarat

History, Memory, and the Law
The Amherst Series in Law,Jurisprudence, and Social Thought
Eachworkincluded inTheAmherst SeriesinLaw,Jurisprudence,
and SocialThought explores a theme crucial to anunderstanding of
law as it confronts the changingsocial and intellectualcurrents ofthe
twenty-firstcentury.
Works EditedbyAustinSaratand Thomas R. Kearns
The Fate ofLaw
Law's Violence
LaID in Everyday Life
The RhetoricofLaID
Identities, Politics, and Rights
Legal Rights: Historical and Philosophical Perspectives
Justice and Injustice in Lawand Legal Theory
Law in the Donlains ofCulture
Cultural Pluralism, Identity Politics, and the LaIu
History, Memory, and the Law
Human Rights: Concepts, Contests, Contingencies
Works EditedbyAustinSarat, LawrenceDouglas,
and MarthaMerrillUmphrey
Lives in the Law
History, Memory,
and the Law
Edited by
AUSTIN SARAT
and
THOMAS R. KEARNS
Ann Arbor
THE UNIVERSITYOF MICHIGAN PRESS
Firstpaperbackedition2002
Copyright©by theUniversityofMichigan1999
All rights reserved
PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericaby
TheUniversityofMichiganPress
ManufacturedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
§ Printedonacid-freepaper
2005 2004 2003 2002 543 2
Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedina retrieval
system,ortransmittedinanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,
mechanical,orotherwise,withoutthewrittenpermissionofthepublisher.
A elFcatalogrecordfor this bookisavailablefrom theBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
History, memory, and thelaw / editedbyAustinSaratand ThomasR.
Kearns.
p. em.- (Amherstseriesinlaw,jurisprudence, andsocial
thought)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesand index.
ISBN0-472-11045-4 (acid-freepaper)
1.Law-UnitedStates-History. 2. Law-Methodology. 3. Law and
literature. 1.Sarat,Austin. II. Kearns, ThomasR. III. Series.
KF389 .H54 1999
349.73-dc21 99-6462
eIP
ISBN0-472-08899-8 (pbk. :alk. paper)
ISBN13 978-0-472-11045-2 (cloth : acid-free paper)
ISBN13 978-0-472-08899-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN13 978-0-472-02364-6 (electronic)
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to our colleagues Lawrence Douglas and Martha
Umphrey, both of whom are doing important work on law's history
and memory, for theirhelp inshapingtheideas thatinformthisbook.
"Law's History" is the subject of a course taught by Professor
Umphrey. Wethank ourstudentsin AmherstCollege'sDepartmentof
Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought for their interest in the issues
addressed in History, Memory, and the Law. Finally, we would like to
express special appreciation to the Keck Foundation for its generous
financial support.

Contents
Writing HistoryandRegisteringMemoryin
LegalDecisionsand LegalPractices: AnIntroduction 1
Austin SaratandThomas R. Kearns
FormsofJudicialBlindness: TraumaticNarratives
andLegalRepetitions 25
Shoshana Felman
Memory, Law,andLiterature:
TheCasesofFlaubertand Baudelaire 95
DominickLaCapra
CollectiveMemoryandtheNineteenthAmendment:
Reasoningabout"TheWomanQuestion" inthe
DiscourseofSexDiscrimination 131
RevaB. Siegel
Heldinthe BodyoftheState: PrisonsandtheLaw 183
Joan Dayan
Stigmas,Badges,andBrands: DiscriminatingMarks
inLegalHistory 249
BrookThomas
AnalogicalReasoningand HistoricalChangeinLaw:
TheRegulationofFilmand RadioSpeech 283
G. Ed7vard White
Contributors 319
Index 321

Writing History and
Registering Memory in
Legal Decisions and Legal
Practices: An Introduction
Austin Sarat and Thomas R. Kearns
Therecanbenoonehistoricalnarrativethatrendersperfectjustice
(justasperhapsthereisnojudicialoutcomethatcancapturethe
complexityofhistory)....[T]hehistorianwouldliketodojustice;
thejudgemustestablishsomeversionofhistory....Ifgoodjudges
andhistoriansshunthesetasks,theywillbetakenonbyprejudiced
ortriumphalistones.
CharlesMaier
Thestruggleofmanagainstpoweristhestruggleofmemory
againstforgetting.
MilanKundera
Wemustknowtherighttimetoforgetaswellastherighttimeto
remember,andinstinctivelyseewhenitisnecessarytofeelhistori
callyandwhenunhistorically.
FriedrichNietzsche
Generally when scholars talk about the relationship between history,
memory, and law, the latter is thought of solely as a passive object of
historical change.1 Legal history is regarded as the study ofthe forces
thathave shaped law. Itisthehistoryofthe evolutionoflawwithlaw
1.LawrenceFriedman,TheHistoryofAmericanLaw(NewYork:SimonandSchus
ter,1973),18.Friedmanremarksthat"lawmoveswithitstimesandiseternallynew."