Lady Justice: The Goddess, the Myth, the Legal Metaphor:
An Investigation into the justice behind the visual metaphor and the influence of her female form.

Abstract

The following investigation centres around the legal, visual metaphor Lady Justice. It produces a chronological analysis of her composition and application from her medieval origins as the goddesses Ma’at, Themis, Dike and Justitia, through to her use in 21st century political cartoons. It consults relevant key works of Law and Literature, primarily: Christine de Pizan’s The Book of the City of Ladies, William Shakespeare’s the Merchant of Venice, Langston Hughes’s Justice, and Franz Kafka’s The Trial, in order to determine both what form of justice the metaphor represents, and what role her gender plays on the metaphor’s operation. It finds that, throughout her extensive application and development, Lady Justice represents a core Justinian concept of justice, wherein justice is ‘the set and constant purpose which gives each man his due’. On the matter of her gender, it finds that Justice’s femininity, and subsequent assumptions surrounding gendered norms and customs, are exploited to help the metaphor communicate its representation of justice. It is found particularly relevant that her gender, as Joanne Conaghan observed, secures that with the proper handing, Justice is controllable. However, the final chapter finds that, in a 21st century context, where 15th century gendered assumptions no longer hold high social value, the embedding of these gendered norms in the communication of Lady Justice’s metaphor no longer successfully serves the same rhetorical purpose and instead poses a potential risk to her representation of a Justinian theory of justice. The investigation concludes by suggesting that, regarding the changing polarity of Lady Justice’s gender, it is a matter that will likely require a development of the metaphor, either in its composition, as with the addition of the blindfold in the renaissance, or a shifting in its chosen presentation of justice. Ultimately, the topic as a whole is one of great interest and one which should be followed over the coming years.