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The common law illusion: literary justice in Coleridge's on the Constitution of the Church and State.(Critical essay)

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From: College Literature
Date: 20080622
Author:Barr, Mark L.

Mark L. Barr The Common Law Illusion: Literary Justice in Coleridge's On the Constitution of the Church and State

This paper traces Samuel Taylor Coleridge's engagement with issues of legal interpretation late in his career and most particularly in On the Constitution of the Church and State. Having long noted the political and social ramifications of the supposedly systematic interpretation of legal precedent lying at the heart of the common law, Coleridge suggests that a group of cultural trustees, the Clerisy, could perform a quasi-judicial role to guide reading in the ...

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