Edmond Picard and the Congo Free State: A Study in Law and Literature

Abstract

While the law and literature movement has treated a number of important texts, contexts, and figures from both spheres, surprisingly absent is the situation of Leopold II’s Congo Free State and the person of Edmond Picard. This article seeks to redress that absence, looking first at Edmond Picard as an important figure who represents both law and literature and analyzing a few texts directly related to colonialism in the Congo: specifically, his legal opinion Consultation délibérée and his travel narrative En Congolie. Then, we examine a few examples of Anglo-American literary resistance to Leopold’s project in the Congo before coming to some conclusions. This study seeks to demonstrate the way in which questions of law and literature are inextricably linked: legal texts pose problems common to literary texts, and vice versa. Interacting with the work of prominent law and literature scholars, such as Richard Posner, Richard Weisberg, and Robin West, we conclude that the two spheres ought not to be abstracted from one another, but rather be examined conjointly, the case of the Congo Free State offering a glimpse into how the two work hand-in-hand with real world consequences for human lives.