Reconsidering empathy in the "law and Literature" movement

Abstract

In the last decade, empathy has gained a prominent place in law and philosophy. Since its beginnings in the 1970s, the "Law and Literature" movement was associated with the consideration of the value of empathy in the world of the law but also, empathy was a highly contested terrain within the different voices of the movement. In this context, the paper reconsiders the role and characterization of empathy in the "Law and Literature" movement as a privilege site to calibrate the strenght, pretentions and the effects of the "empathy argument"; and also to reexamine its critical points.