William Shakespeare is inextricably linked with the law. Legal documents make up most of the records we have of his life, and trials, lawsuits, and legal terms permeate his plays. Gathering an extraordinary team of literary and legal scholars and even sitting judges, "Shakespeare and the Law" demonstrates that Shakespeare's thinking about legal concepts points to a deep engagement with the law's technical workings, its underlying premises, and its social effects. "Shakespeare and the Law" opens with three essays on law and literature that emphasize both the continuities and contrasts between the two fields. In its second section, the book considers Shakespeare's awareness of common law thinking and practice through examinations of Measure for Measure and Othella. Building on this question, in the third part a judge and a former solicitor general rule on Shylock's demand for enforcement of his odd contract, and two essays by literary scholars take contrasting views on whether Shakespeare could imagine a functioning legal system. The fourth section looks at how law enters into conversation with issues of politics and community, both in the plays and in our own world. The volume concludes with a freewheeling colloquy among Supreme Court Justice Stephen J. Breyer, Judge Richard A. Posner, Martha C. Nussbaum, and Richard Strier. Celebrating the sometimes fractious intellectual energy produced by scholars and practitioners tackling the question of Shakespeare and the law, this collection is a resource and provocation for further thinking and ongoing discussion.

布莱迪•科马克（Bradin Cormack），芝加哥大学英语教授，尼克尔森英国研究中心主任。主要作品有：《行使正义的一种力量：司法权，英国文学和普通法的兴起，1509-1625》（A Power to do Justice: Jurisdiction, English Literature, and the Rise of Common Law, 1509-1625）（2007年）。

玛莎•C.努斯鲍姆（Martha C. Nussbaum），任职于芝加哥大学法学院、哲学系和神学院，是芝加哥大学法学和伦理学厄内斯特•弗伦德杰出讲座教授。她最新作品是：《非为利益：为什么民主需要人文学科》(Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities)（2010年），《创造可能性：人类发展途径》(Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach)（2011年）和《新的宗教宽容》(The New Religious Intolerance)（2012年）。

理查德•斯特瑞尔（Richard Strier），芝加哥大学英语系教授。主要作品有：《已知的爱：乔治赫伯特诗歌中的神学和经验》（Love Known:Theology and Experience in George Herbert’s Poetry）（1983年），《抵制结构：特别性，激进主义和文艺复兴文本》(Resistant Structures: Particularity, Radicalism, and Renaissance Texts)（1995年），《死不悔改的文艺复兴：从彼特拉克到莎士比亚到弥尔顿》(Unrepentant Renaissance from Petrarch to Shakespeare to Milton)（2011年）。