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Constitution : Utopia, Limited or a limited utopia?
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Snape, J. (2019) Constitution : Utopia, Limited or a limited utopia? In: Ward, I., (ed.) A Cultural History of Law in the Age of Reform. A Cultural History of Law . London: Bloomsbury, pp. 35-53. ISBN 9781474212854
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Official URL: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1088792842
Abstract
This chapter considers the possibility that Utopia, Limited (1893), a comic opera by WS Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, may be read, heard and seen as a highly conservative reflection on nineteenth-century constitutional and legal change and, in the process, as a mirror of the structure of Thomas More's Utopia (1516). The chapter pursues four main thoughts. First, how the plot of the opera contains a legal syllogism based on the British constitution, working through an insight of Alan Fischler's. Secondly, how the plot has fun with turning the state 'inside-out', by making constitutional law subject to company law. Thirdly, how the plot mocks lawyers and other people who aspire to the office of government. Fourthly, and finally, how the opera encodes an exhortation to reject 'progress' and to embrace instead incremental reform. The work needs to be more well known by lawyers, because, not only is Utopia always limited but it is also, as Michael Oakeshott says, no place for lawyers.
Item Type: | Book Item | ||||
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Alternative Title: | |||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Law | ||||
Series Name: | A Cultural History of Law | ||||
Publisher: | Bloomsbury | ||||
Place of Publication: | London | ||||
ISBN: | 9781474212854 | ||||
Book Title: | A Cultural History of Law in the Age of Reform | ||||
Editor: | Ward, I. | ||||
Official Date: | 2019 | ||||
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Page Range: | pp. 35-53 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||
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