Loving Justice

Kathryn D. Temple is Associate Professor and former Chair of the English Department at Georgetown University. She is the author of Loving Justice: Legal Emotions in William Blackstone's England and Scandal Nation: Law and Authorship in England.

There is significant interest in the writings of William Blackstone amongst scholars and practitioners in the legal domain, and Kathryn Temple sheds new light upon his legacy. But what makes this book especially fascinating is this re-imagining of the aesthetic and emotional world of eighteenth-century English law, and the re-viewing of texts in regards thereto. This is a superb work. (Robert Barsky, Professor of Law, Vanderbilt Law School) A gorgeous book. The writing is beautiful, the organization is lucid, and the ideas are sophisticated and insightful. (Susan A. Bandes, Centennial Professor of Law Emeritus, DePaul University College of Law) In this first sustained close reading of Blackstone's Commentaries as a work of high art and sensibility, Kathyrn Temple locates book and author in their eighteenth-century emotional context, while showing how they can still speak to us today. (Wilfrid Prest, author of William Blackstone: Law and Letters in the Eighteenth Century) Kathryn Temple provides a unique multi-disciplinary perspective on English law in the eighteenth century by taking account of the emotions and aesthetics of Blackstone's Commentaries. This learned and witty book is a must-read for anyone interested in the popular appeal of justice in all its complexity. (David Lemmings, ARC Centre for the History of Emotions, University of Adelaide) Loving Justice delicately shows how Blackstone's biography and the systematisation of the common law are intertwined, engendering a range of emotions. Recommended. (Choice)