James Boyd White (born 1938) is an American law professor,

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

, scholar and philosopher who is generally credited with founding the " law and Literature" movement. He is a proponent of the analysis of

constitutive rhetoric Constitutive rhetoric is a theory of discourse devised by James Boyd White about the capacity of language or symbols to create a collective identity for an audience, especially by means of condensation symbols, literature, and narratives. Such dis ...

in the analysis of legal texts.

Biography

White attended

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...

, from which he graduated in 1960 with a B.A. in

Classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classi ...

, and went on to earn an M.A. in English Literature from Harvard University in 1961, and an

LL.B. Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

from the

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class i ...

in 1964. He practiced with the firm of

Foley Hoag Foley Hoag LLP (formerly Foley, Hoag & Eliot LLP) is a law firm headquartered in Boston, with additional offices in New York City, Paris, and Washington, D.C. The firm represents public and private clients in a wide range of disputes and transacti ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most p ...

before moving into teaching. He taught at the

University of Colorado School of Law The University of Colorado Law School is one of the professional graduate schools within the University of Colorado System. It is a public law school, with more than 500 students attending and working toward a Juris Doctor or Master of Studies i ...

from 1967 to 1974, at the University of Chicago Law School from 1974 to 1983, and has been at the University of Michigan Law School from 1983 until the present. At Michigan, White is the L. Hart Wright Professor of Law, Professor of English and Adjunct Professor of

. He is also a member of the

American Academy of Arts & Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

Works

White's best-known book, ''The Legal Imagination: Studies in the Nature of Legal Thought and Expression'', was published in 1973. It was designed essentially as a textbook for students studying

legal language Legal English is the type of English as used in legal writing. In general, a legal language is a formalized language based on logic rules which differs from the ordinary natural language in vocabulary, morphology, syntax, and semantics, as well a ...

. In ''The Legal Imagination,'' literary and other texts are compared to legal texts in the way they "constitute" the identities of characters and the meanings of concepts. The book is thought to have "kicked off" the law and literature movement and is still widely influential. White's subsequent books include: *''When Words Lose Their Meaning: Constitutions and Reconstitutions of Language, Character, and Community'' (1984) *''

Heracles' Bow ''Heracles' Bow: Essays on the Rhetoric and Poetics of the Law'' is a collection of ten essays, written by James Boyd White in 1985, that examine forensic rhetoric as it creates community, as an example of what White calls constitutive rhetoric. ...

: Essays on the Rhetoric and Poetics of the Law'' (1985) *''Justice As Translation: An Essay in Cultural and Legal Criticism'' (1990) *''Acts of Hope: Creating Authority in Literature, Law, and Politics'' (1994) *''"This Book of Starres": Learning to Read George Herbert'' (1994) *''From Expectation to Experience: Essays on Law and Legal Education'' (2000) *''The Edge of Meaning'' (2003) *''Living Speech: Resisting the Empire of Force'' (2006) *''Keep Law Alive'' (2019)

External links

White's profile at University of Michigan website

White's home page (featuring a listing of his books)

Comment on Jame Boyd White's Living Speech, by Dr. Yofi Tirosh
{{DEFAULTSORT:White, James Boyd 1938 births Living people American legal scholars Amherst College alumni American literary critics Harvard Law School alumni University of Michigan Law School faculty