Seminar No. 3.1.

Title: Staging the Boundaries of Law in Early Modern Drama: English Dramatic Presentations of
Continental European Justice.

Leaders:

B. J. Sokol (Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK)
Barbara I. Kreps (University of Pisa, Italy)

Participants:

Stephanie Chamberlain, (Southeast Missouri State University)
Imtiaz Habib, (Old Dominion Univerity)
Rolf Müller, (Fanny Leicht Gymnasium)
Mary Polito, (Univerity of Calgary)
Terry Reilly, (University of Alaska Fairbanks)

Abstract:

Many conflicts represented by Shakespeare and contemporary dramatists involve legal issues such as inheritance,
bastardy, defamation, wardship, marriage-formation, women's property rights, rape, adultery, mercantile law, larceny,
witchcraft, debt, torture, murder, treason. During the early modern period English law increasingly differed from other
European legal systems. To what extent do plays set outside of England show independence of the Common Law
system, or imaginative freedom from any specific legal system? Papers might for instance compare English and continental treatments of specific legal topics, discuss whether English law stands behind plays set in Mediterranean countries, or investigate staging of justice in relation to issues in real legal systems.