ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the narrative turn in the legal field. At the beginning of the eighties, legal theorists operating in the United States highlighted the existence of a dimension of judicial interpretation that is not generated by an isolated subject, but represents an expression of the social, legal and political benchmark context, an expression of the community. Substantially criticising modern legal positivism, the American philosopher discusses the judge’s “interpretative attitude” by stating that legal practice always consists in an “exercise of interpretation”. While the postmodern turn in legal studies was favoured in Europe by the rise of hermeneutic trends, in the Anglo-American context it can be considered a direct consequence of legal realism, which came about and developed in reaction to legal formalism. The construction of legal meanings in everyday life is also the topic of New Legal Realism. Legal narrative has been employed with practical wisdom as a tool for lawyering and especially fact construction and lawyer-client relationships.
