Leading scholars in the field analyze Shakespeare's plays to show how their dramatic content shapes issues debated in conflicts arising from the creation and application of law. Individual essays focus on such topics such as slander, revenge, and royal prerogative; these studies reveal the problems confronting early modern English men and women.

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THOMAS C. BILELLO Attorney with Pacific Life Insurance Company in Newport Beach, California, USA ALLEN D. BOYER Lawyer, New York City, USA A.R. BUCK, Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Arts and Law, Macquarie University, Australia DYMPNA CALLAGHAN Dean's Professor in the Humanities, Syracuse University, USA CYNDIA SUSAN CLEGG Distinguished Professor of English, Pepperdine University, USA ELIZABETH HANSON Professor of English, Queen's University, Canada PETER C. HERMAN Professor of English and Comparative Literature, San Diego State University, USA LORNA HUTSON Berry Professor of English Literature, University of St Andrews, Scotland CHRIS R. KYLE Associate Professor of Humanities, History Department, Syracuse University, USA REBECCA LEMON Assistant Professor of English, University of Southern California, USA CHARLES ROSS Professor of English and Chair of the Program of Comparative Literature, Purdue University, USA CAROLYN SALE Assistant Professor of English Literature, University of Alberta, Canada WILLIAM O. SCOTT Professor of English, University of Kansas, USA LUKE WILSON Professor of English, Ohio State University, USA NANCY E. WRIGHT Deputy Dean of the College of Arts at the University of Western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

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Acknowledgments Notes on Contributors English Law in Shakespeare's Plays; C.Jordan & K.Cunningham Drama, Law and Rhetoric in the Age of Coke and Shakespeare; A.D.Boyer The Wilde Side of Justice in Early Modern England and Titus Andronicus ; D.Callaghan & C.R.Kyle Landholding, Leasing and Inheritance in Richard II; W.O.Scott Cast out of Eden: Property and Inheritance in Shakespearean Drama; N.E.Wright & A.R.Buck Avoiding the Issue of Fraud: 4 and 5 Philip & Mary c. 8 (the heiress protection statute), Portia and Desdemona; C.Ross Accomplished with What She Lacks: Law, Equity and Portia's Con; T.C.Bilello Drama and Marine Insurance in Shakespeare's London; L.Wilson Noises Off: Participatory Justice in 2 Henry VI ; L.Hutson Truth, lies and the law of slander in Much Ado About Nothing ; C.S.Clegg The 'Amending Hand': Hales v. Petit, Eyston v. Studd and Equitable Action in Hamlet ; C.Sale Macbeth : Absolutism, the Ancient Constitution, and the Aporia of Politics; P.C.Herman Arms and Laws in Shakespeare's Coriolanus ; R.Lemon Measure for Measure and the Law of Nature; E.Hanson Index