Langston Hughes, a poet of the Harlem Renaissance, often wrote about themes of justice and racial bias in the American legal system. His poem "Ballad of the Landlord" is often anthologized; it provides a realistic look at 1920's landlord-tenant law in most American jurisdictions.

Franz Kafka, a Czech patent attorney, wrote disturbing and surreal works which often questioned the logic of the legal system. His novel "The Trial" raises very fundamental questions about whether a legal system fashioned by human beings brings about any justice at all, or simply grinds everyone down as its wheels turn on and on. The Orson Welles film is on reserve in Knapp Center.

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Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens is famous among law students for his remark that "The Law is an ass." The first chapter of his novel "Bleak House" dramatizes the endlessly proceeding, stultifyingly boring, and outrageously expensive case of Jardynce v. Jarndyce, a will contest which outlives many of the lawyers involved in it.

Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and distinguished novelist and essayist, writes of the perversion of laws by the Nazis, and the loss of faith in law and religion. His Night is well worth reading if you missed it in high school.

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