Blog Entry: Group 6

Brainstorming Privacy, Week 1

These quotes on privacy showcased a prevailing movement that is gathering momentum, literature in law.

Firstly, to appreciate the brighter side with this movement, literature in law helps in connecting with the society in an utilitarian sense where except the minority, the majority is included. Since law is always portrayed as an institution that is exclusive of the people in the society, the use of literature helps in reducing the alienable characteristic of law for literature is a study that represents the stories and emotions of an individual.

Literature in law could also be connected to the concept of knowledge matrix. It is an elitist phenomenon because the information sent out to the citizens is regulated and is controlled generally by those in power, here the judges. The material of literature that they choose to spread out usually reflects the prevalent culture that is already flowing in society.

These ideas exclude the narratives of the disadvantaged and the ones that the society considers to be others. Since no opportunity is given to the groups who have been forced to stay at the periphery of the society’s culture and traditions, there happens a perpetuation of the same ideas that glorify the literature of the ruling class.

An issue with using literature in judgements is that it alienates the marginalised sections from law, as the material on literature is accessible mostly to the elite members of the society.

Literature in law also seems to represent the concept of Overton window where the majoritarian view in the society is given preference over the minority views. Literature in law could be used as a disguise to get through an ideology across that is not commonly accepted in the society, so as to transfer that opinion to the target audience but also at the same time, shifting the overturn window in the society so as to make a room for acceptance for the same in future. The judges use the quotations by the world’s best authors as the way to distract the underprivileged so that they become distracted since they are expected to only focus on the creativity of the judgement.