Legal education and literature

a necessary approach

Abstract

Based on the assumption that literature is an elementary component in the training of law students, as it develops skills such as creativity, critical and reflective capacity, a sense of ethics and justice, empathy and communicative skills, essential to professional practice, a theoretical dialogue is suggested between the categories described by Trindade and Gubert (2008) — Law in Literature, Law as Literature and Right to Literature — and the periodization of juris-philosophical currents proposed by Cassien and Billier (2005). In the part referring to Law in Literature, some fictional literary works are listed that can contribute to shed light on some legal issues, given its proximity to the topic. In Law as Literature, it is analyzed how the use of typical literary resources has been an effective response to the crisis suffered by legal positivism throughout the 20th century and which entered the 21st century. It is postulated that the use of literature in Law courses can alleviate the dryness of certain content, facilitating its assimilation. It is also argued that the development of pleasure in reading among jurists can help mitigate positivist practices that still prevail, which are an obstacle to the full realization of citizens' rights.