The Application of Husserlian Phenomenology to the Examination of the Translatability of Criminal Law Practices Across American and Italian Culture in the Prosecution and Acquittal of Amanda Knox

Abstract

This Article uses various concepts of Husserlian phenomenology to explain the disparate opinion between the North American and Italian public in response to the prosecution and ultimate acquittal of Amanda Knox. This Article argues that the comparative difference in public opinion is due to an extensive shift in culture that is necessarily accompanied by a shift in spatial-temporal location. In this Article, the Husserlian concepts of intentionality, the Self, the Other-I, and empathy overlay the judicial opinions and media releases critical to shaping North American and Italian public perceptions of Amanda Knox. As applied, these Husserlian concepts function as interpretive lenses, providing the reader with a novel framework for analyzing the cause of interpretive difference across cultures.

Keywords

• Phenomenology
• Edmund Husserl
• culture
• cultural interpretation
• criminal law
• comparative law
• Italy
• North America
• Amanda Knox
• public opinion
• perception