The play and the conscience of the king: literature, democracy and the education of lawyers

Abstract

The hierarchy of values, which is a condition of intelligibility to any literary narrative, makes literature a prime tool for the education of lawyers – especially those living under democratic regimes and engaged in perfecting them. In presenting as inextricably linked conditions for intelligibility and ethical assessment, literary discourse often allows to understand, with greater force than do legal and social theories, the major tensions involving Law in practice.

Keywords

• direito e literatura
• democracia
• condições de inteligibilidade
• sentimentos morais.