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An analysis of constitutional law examining the plays of william shakespeare as legal texts professor ward uses the plays as a starting point to investigate the development of constitutional ideas such as sovereignty commonwealth conscience and moral law and the art of government. The extent of shakespeares understanding of law is unclear but at the time there existed an offence of defamation in anglo saxon law with cases brought before royal courts until 1641 t thus it is possible to make the argument that there was legal protection accorded to the reputation of a person from its defamation by another. Commentaries on the law in shakespeare with explanations of the legal terms used in the plays poems and sonnets and a consideration of the criminal of the bacon shakespeare controversy 2010 paul raffieldshakespeares imaginary constitution late elizabethan politics and the theatre of law 2010 and karen cunninghamed the law in . Law and the contours of the legal imagination isolated and examined in whites investigation add certain further observations drawn from my experience as a lawyer and conclude with a statement of the books central dilemma in the second section i discuss certain themes and concepts terms of criticism that i believe are central. Conflicts of law and equity in the merchant of venice william carlos williams once said that shakespeare is the greatest university of them all qtd in kornstein xiii this is especially true with respect to the law a dedicated scholar can discover a wealth of information on legal issues in shakespeares works