Shakespeare's Law

<p><em>Shakespeare's Law</em> is a critical overview of law and legal issues within the life career and works of William Shakespeare as well as those that arise from the endless array of activities that happen today in the name of Shakespeare. Mark Fortier argues that Shakespeare’s attitudes to law are complex and not always sanguine that there exists a deep and perhaps ultimate move beyond law very different from what a lawyer or legal scholar might recognize. </p><p>Fortier looks in detail at the legal issues most prominent across Shakespeare’s work: status inheritance fraud property contract tort (especially slander) evidence crime political authority trials and the relative value of law and justice. He also includes two detailed case studies of <em>The Merchant of Venice </em>and <em>Measure for Measure</em> as well as a chapter looking at law in works by Shakespeare's contemporaries. The book concludes with a chapter on the law as it relates to Shakespeare today. </p><p>The book shows that the legal issues in Shakespeare are often relevant to issues we face now and the exploration of law in Shakespeare is as germane today though in sometimes new ways as in the past. </p>