Jul 7, 2024

Law and Humanities

Russell Sandberg and Daniel Newman

Hosted by Alex Batesmith

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Summary

In Law and Humanities (Anthem Press, 2024), Professor Russell Sandberg and Dr Daniel Newman provide an accessible introduction to the law and humanities. Each chapter explores the nature, development and possible further trajectory of a disciplinary ‘law and’ field, tackling a wide ranging series of topics as law and geography, law and history, law and literature, law and theatre. Each chapter is written by an expert in the respective field and addresses how the two disciplines of law and the other respective field operate. This edited work fulfils a real and pressing need to provide an accessible, introductory but critical guide to law and humanities as a whole by exploring how each disciplinary ‘law and’ field has developed, contributes to further scrutinizing the content and role of law, and how it can contribute and be enriched by being understood within the law and humanities tradition as a whole.

In the podcast, Professor Sandberg and Dr Newman explain their aims in editing this collection, and how in particular studying law and the respective humanities can enhance a legal studies curriculum beyond the confines of an exclusively doctrinal education. The editors also explore in detail the chapters they authored – Law and History, Law and Philosophy and Law and Religion, before offering some reflections on and hopes for the future of the broader Law and Humanities discipline.

Alex Batesmith is a Lecturer in Legal Profession in the School of Law at the University of Leeds, and a former barrister and UN war crimes prosecutor, with teaching and research interests in international criminal law, cause lawyering and the legal profession, and law and emotion. LinkedIn.

His recent publications include:

“‘Poetic Justice Products’: International Justice, Victim Counter-Aesthetics, and the Spectre of the Show Trial” in Christine Schwöbel-Patel and Rob Knox (eds) Aesthetics and Counter-Aesthetics of International Justice (Counterpress, 2024, ISBN 978-1-910761-17-5)
"Lawyers who want to make the world a better place – Scheingold and Sarat’s Something to Believe In: Politics, Professionalism, and Cause Lawyering" in D. Newman (ed.) Leading Works on the Legal Profession (Routledge, July 2023), ISBN 978-1-032182-80-3)
“International Prosecutors as Cause Lawyers" (2021) Journal of International Criminal Justice 19(4) 803-830 (ISSN 1478-1387)

Your Host

Alex Batesmith

Alex Batesmith is a Lecturer in Legal Profession at the School of Law, University of Leeds, UK. His research focuses on lawyers, their professional self-identity and their motivations, and how these shape the institutions and the discipline in which they work. He has a particular interest in, and practitioner experience of, international criminal law and transitional justice. Twitter: @batesmith

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