Franz Kafka, Born July 3, 1883

Franz Kakfa, born on this day in 1883.

Kafka took a degree in law at the University of Prague in 1906 and thereafter pursued a career working in insurance, but really disliked it, because it left him little time to write. He retired in 1922 because of poor health. In his works, he emphasized dark themes that question the nature of reality.

Below is a (very) short bibliography of works that explore law-related issues in Kafka.

Buonamano, R., Kafka and legal critique, 25 Griffith Law Review 581-599 (2016).

Glen, Patrick J., The Deconstruction and Reification of Law in Franz Kafka’s Before the Law and the Trial, 7 S. Cal. Interdisc. L.J. 23 (2007-2008).

Glen, Patrick J., Franz Kafka, Lawrence Joseph, and the Possibilities of Jurisprudential Literature, 21 S. Cal. Interdisc. L.J. 47 (2011-2012).

Robert M. Kaplan, Joseph K. Claims Compensation: Franz Kafka’s Legal Writings, 3 Advances in Historical Studies 115 (2014).

Litowitz, Douglas E., Kafka’s Indictment of Modern Law (2017).

Litowitz, Douglas E., Max Weber and Franz Kafka: A Shared Vision of Modern Law, 7 Law, Culture, and the Humanities, 48-65 (2011).

Sander, Volkmar, Franz Kafka’s Use of Law in Fiction: A New Interpretation of “In der Strafkolonie, “Der Prozess, and “Das Schloss” (1986).

van Houtum, H, Waiting Before the Law: Kafka on the Border, 19 Social & Legal Studies 285-297 (2010).