commemorated the Cavalry Charge at Balaklava in the Crimea: ‘Theirs not to
make reply, / Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die.’”
243
Finally on this point, it is worth noting that law and literature interact in other
ways.
244
First, literature can be used to teach law.
245
Second, judgments
themselves can be viewed as a form of literature.
246
Third, literary works may
contain commentary on law.
247
An example of this is the famous defence of
the jury by GK Chesterton:
Our Civilization has decided, and very justly decided, that determining the guilt or
innocence of men is a thing too important to be trusted to trained men. It wishes for light
upon that awful matter, it asks men who know no more law than I know, but who can feel
the thing that I felt in the jury box. When it wants a library catalogued, or the solar system
discovered, or any trifle of that kind, it uses up its specialists. But when it wishes anything
done which is really serious, it collects twelve of the ordinary men standing round. The
same thing was done, if I remember right, by the founder of Christianity.
248
Rhythm
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so
few.
249
Rhythm is obvious in poetry, although it is repetitive. Some poems stand out
for the way in which the rhythm reinforces the major theme of the poem. For
example in Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem The Brook it is difficult not to hear
the babble and feel the energy as it flows along. To illustrate from one verse:
I chatter over stony ways,
In little sharps and trebles,
I bubble into eddying bays,
I babble on the pebbles.
___________________
243
Michael A Musmanno, USNR, Military Tribunal II, “Case 9: Opinion and
Judgment of the Tribunal” Nuremberg: Palace of Justice, 8 April 1948 p 94, citing
Alfred Lord Tennyson The Charge of the Light Brigade.
244
For a general discussion see Cardozo (1925).
245
Turner (1985)
246
Petch (1991), and Jordan (1987)
247
For example, WS Gilbert was a gifted legal satirist –
see Turner
(1987-89).
248
GK Chesterton Tremendous Trifles
249
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) Prime Minister of Great Britain
referring to the pilots of the allied forces who defeated the German air
force in the Battle of Britain in 1940. This was a World War II battle,
which probably saved Britain from invasion by Nazi Germany.
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