ABSTRACT
French philosopher Michel Serres identifies a certain collusion between science and law in contemporary culture, which is due to the failure of the legal system to provide a check on, or to be critical of, science. Ethical criticism of law’s failures and of science’s failures is sometimes based in literary traditions. The law-and-literature movement is, in part, based on the notion that the engagement of law students and lawyers with literature about law and lawyering can help develop or maintain ethical sensibilities. Paralleling law-and-literature, the field of literature-and-science has also grown in popularity over the last several decades, and is likewise evidenced by publications, conferences, and university courses, even though it is as diverse an enterprise as law-and-literature. Returning to Taylor’s more inclusive rhetoric of science, an example which is particularly relevant to the analysis of scientific discourse in law is Jeanne Fahnestock’s study of the accommodation of science in lay or popular publications.
