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5 L. & Critique 3 (1994)

handle is hein.journals/lwcrtq5 and id is 1 raw text is: Law and Critique Vol.V no.1 [19941 LAW AS LITERATURE: DECONSTRUCTING THE LEGAL TEXT by SHEILA DUNCAN* 1. Introduction This article focuses on a theoretical analysis of the legal text and most specifically one text: the case of D.P.P. v. Morgan1 - a 1976 rape case which is still authority for an important principle in the law of rape. This analysis draws extensively on the theory of Michel Foucault and Luce Irigaray to pose, and respond to, a number of theo- retical issues which are raised by the discourse of the law and which are illustrated powerfully in the case chosen for deconstruction. At a general theoretical level these questions must be posed: What is this discourse that is law as it is expressed in the legal text? How is this discourse constructed? What are its truths? What does it ex- clude in constructing those truths? Who is the subject of this dis- course? What are its defining concepts? What is the relationship be- tween legal discourse and justice? How can this discourse and its defining concepts of reason, consent, intention and honest belief be deconstructed in the context of the case of Morgan? It is necessary to consider the way in which this legal text dismisses reason and con- structs consent, intention and honest belief to give space to reason's others: the sexual violence and desire of the male subject and in doing so it is necessary to seek to define the violence of the legal text. * School of Law, University of Warwick. The author gratefully acknow- ledges the comments of Brendan McSweeney on an earlier draft of this text and the comments of participants at the Conference on Literature and Law, Centre for English Studies, University of London, November 1993. 1 [19761 A.C. 182.