Bob Whitman has kindly presented me with Volume 39, No 5. (July 2007) of the Connecticut Law Review, containing his recent article Karl N. Llewellyn: How Icelandic Saga Literature Influenced the Scholarship and Life of An American Legal Realist pp. 1923-76. Several aspects of this scholarly work are worthy of note. First, Bob co-authored the piece with two recent graduates of our school, Peter Dinunzio and Elinor Kim, who presumably were turned on to the topic while studying in Bob's classes.
Second, the piece uses the link between Llewellyn and Icelandic law as a useful vehicle for touring some important highlights in Llewellyn's work, while Bob and compatriots simultanously demonstrate how Llewellyn's undeniable fascination with Icelandic sagas influenced him in many ways. Third, Bob and his colleagues not only write about Llewellyn's jurisprudence, they devote considerable attention to a critical reading of a saga and poem in the Icelandic tradition, which Llewellyn wrote near the end of his life.
Above all, however, this piece reminds us of the importance of cross-cultural study within Llewellyn's work and Llewellyn's bedrock idea that disputes (and their inevitably) are eternal, hence we better start figuring out all the ways, legal and non-legal through which so many different societies have attempted to resolve or at least contain them.
Congratulations Bob!
Jeremy
