Law on the Books Versus Law in Action: Text in Context
Legal texts, like scripts, can be performed, interpreted, and applied in diverse manners, says Randy D. Gordon, a partner at Barnes & Thornburg LLP.
January 20, 2021 at 04:31 PM
6 minute read
(Photo by metamorworks/Shutterstock)
In my last column, I noted that the nexus between law and theater is more fulsome than simply a shared foundation in ritual. Another shared feature is that both legal texts and dramatic texts need to be performed to achieve their greatest impact.
Many decades ago, Jerome Frank suggested a useful "comparison between (1) the interpretation of statutes by judges and (2) the interpretation of musical compositions by musical performers." Subsequent commentators like J.M. Balkin and Sanford Levinson have observed that Frank's suggestion is an instantiation and extension of the larger American Legal Realist distinction between law on the books and law in action.
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