- This essay is based on a speech given to the annual Judicial Seminar of the New York State Judges, held in Rochester New York. That it was given as a speech explains its colloquial tone, which I have maintained in this text. The speech was presented on 7/11/89 and again on 7/18/89. Serving on the panel which critiqued my speech were Professor Richard Weisberg, Cardozo School of Law, Daniel J. Kornstein, Esq., and Acting Supreme Court Justice David B. Saxe, the Supreme Court of the State of New York, New York County. The proceedings are reported in Vol. 7, No. 9, Empire State Court Notes, July/August, 1989, at 3–4. At the second panel, Justice Richard W. Wallach, Appellate Division First Dept. New York, moderated. I would like to thank all of the above for their helpful criticism.
- Where have we seen this before? Nixon sends John Dean down to Camp David to write the report that will exonerate Nixon, and Dean returns, telling Nixon, “The man you are seeking is yourself.” You, Nixon says, you, you pathetic shade of a lawyer, you dare to accuse me? You, Oedipus responds, you, you pathetic, blind, imbecile who spends his time babbling with birds? You dare to accuse me? I am indebted for this thought, and for many others, to Joseph Tussman and his work in progress, “Agamemnon and Other Losers.”
- See Lloyd L. Weinreb, Natural Law and Justice, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987) for a fine chapter on Greek theories of causation, justice, and fate, which I have relied upon here.
- This is the equivalent of a second-year law student going to her interview at a large New York law firm and being told: “Gosh, don't bother with your resumé, young woman, we're not interested in your experience. We happen to like your style. How would you like to take over the whole firm?”
- William Shakespeare, Hamlet, eds. Louis B. Wright and Virginia A. LaMar (New York: Washington Square Press, 1958), V, ii, 65.
- Id., III, i, 160.
- Id., III, iii., 63.
- Id., III, iv, 66.
- Id., I, ii, 145.
- Id., i, 64.
Law & Literature
Volume 1, 1989 - Issue 2