Walt Hunter on Shakespeare in the Courtroom

At The Atlantic, in "When Hamlet Starts Showing Up in Federal Court," Walt Hunter looks at the use of Shakespeare citations in legal environments, with an eye on a Philadelphia court. "A recent ruling by a federal judge in Pennsylvania, Michael Baylson, attracted public attention because of the urgent legal questions it poses—and the lives at stake—as well as because of a notable citation on its first page," writes Hunter. More:

...The ruling cites, in its first page, quotations from two tragedies by Shakespeare—Hamlet and Coriolanus—and from an academic article by Benjamin Woodring, “Liberty to Misread: Sanctuary and Possibility in The Comedy of Errors.”

Shakespeare’s frequent treatment of ethical and legal questions is marked far more by its ambiguity and unresolved tensions than by clear directives and propositions—this is part of what makes his work simultaneously playful and vexing. Yet the choice of the quotation from Hamlet, “No place indeed should murder sanctuarize,” responds directly to the present political moment—and uncovers the play’s contemporary relevance.

It is not at all rare to find Shakespeare cited in a legal context. Several of Shakespeare’s best-known works contain problematic trials or scenes that resemble trials, from the disinheritance and banishment of the king’s daughter Cordelia in the opening scene of King Lear to the criminal trial that concludes Measure for Measure. Justice Ginsburg even made a cameo at a 2016 production of The Merchant of Venice, presiding over a mock appeal by the character Shylock. In the case of Baylson’s ruling, though, literary samplings aren’t just rhetorical flourishes. A document that serves, on the one hand, as a legal decision, is also a formal reinterpretation of the play. Far from stressing Hamlet’s madness, the judge emphasizes his vulnerability.

The line quoted as an epigraph comes from Act 4, Scene 7, in which King Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet’s father, tries to persuade Laertes, a former friend of Hamlet’s, to kill Hamlet in a duel with poisoned swords...

Fascinating stuff! Read it all at The Atlantic.