ABSTRACT:This essay raises questions about ways in which law and the interpretive humanities might intersect in such manner as to offer real insight one to another. Specifically, it addresses the use of narrative in the law, and its analytic study. Stories, I argue, are not events in the world, but the way we tell events, a crucial distinction sometimes unrecognized in legal opinions. Examples analyzed include the doctrine of “inevitable discovery” articulated by the Supreme Court in Nix v. Williams, juxtaposed to the creation of a seeming inevitability in the stories of Sherlock Holmes. These issues are further clarified through a discussion of historian Carlo Ginzburg’s reflections on the “huntsman’s paradigm” and the workings of “retrospective prophecy.” The essay then turns more closely to the analysis of narrative, particularly the end-determined nature of narrative meaning, and to the one Supreme Court case I am aware of that discusses narrative in an analytic way: Justice Souter’s opinion in Old Chief v. U.S. Further examples are drawn from rape adjudication (Rusk v. Maryland) and post-conviction petitions for relief (Mickens v. Taylor). If narrative, telling the facts, plays so important a role in law, shouldn’t the law arm itself with more tools in the analysis of narrative? The notion of law as language, including its grammar and its rhetoric, deserves a place in legal study.

中文翻译：

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线索、证据、侦查：法律故事

摘要：这篇文章提出了一些问题，即法律和解释性人文科学可能以何种方式相交，以便相互提供真正的洞察力。具体来说，它解决了叙事在法律中的使用及其分析研究。我认为，故事不是世界上的事件，而是我们讲述事件的方式，这是法律意见有时无法承认的关键区别。分析的例子包括最高法院在尼克斯诉威廉姆斯案中阐明的“不可避免的发现”学说，与夏洛克福尔摩斯故事中看似不可避免的创造并列。通过讨论历史学家卡洛·金茨堡对“猎人范式”和“回顾性预言”的运作的反思，这些问题得到进一步澄清。然后这篇文章更接近于对叙事的分析，特别是叙事意义的最终决定性质，以及我所知道的一个最高法院案例，它以分析的方式讨论了叙事：苏特大法官在老酋长诉美国案中的意见进一步的例子来自强奸裁决（Rusk v. Maryland ) 和定罪后的救济申请 (Mickens v. Taylor)。如果叙述，讲述事实，在法律中起着如此重要的作用，那么法律不应该在叙述的分析中配备更多的工具吗？法律作为语言的概念，包括其语法和修辞，值得在法律研究中占有一席之地。马里兰州）和定罪后的救济申请（Mickens v. Taylor）。如果叙述，讲述事实，在法律中起着如此重要的作用，那么法律不应该在叙述的分析中配备更多的工具吗？法律作为语言的概念，包括其语法和修辞，值得在法律研究中占有一席之地。马里兰州）和定罪后的救济申请（Mickens v. Taylor）。如果叙述，讲述事实，在法律中起着如此重要的作用，那么法律不应该在叙述的分析中配备更多的工具吗？法律作为语言的概念，包括其语法和修辞，值得在法律研究中占有一席之地。