Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- CHAPTER 1 Introduction -- THE MARGINAL -- THE EQUITABLE -- THE UNPARALLELED -- THE SOCIAL NATURE OF BONDING -- VALUING CLAIMS TO RECOGNITION -- CHAPTER 2 Trappings of a transnational gaze: legal and sentimental confinement in Sterne's novels -- DEFOE AND STERNE -- A SENTIMENTAL CONFINEMENT OF REFINEMENT -- WHY SENTIMENTAL COMMERCE IS A PARA-LEGAL MODE OF EQUITY -- EN- GENDERING TOBY'S TRANSFERS OF AFFECTION -- HOW TOBY'S PATERNAL KINDNESS INCURS PROMISSORY LIABILITY -- WHAT DOES SYMPATHY WANT OF ME? OR: YORICK GOES FISHING FOR COMPLIMENTS -- HOW TO TRUST CONSCIENCE BY SUBSTITUTING JUDGMENT -- CHAPTER 3 Reinstitutionalizing the common law: Bentham on the security and flexibility of legal rules -- SECURED EXPECTATIONS VERSUS UNFORCED CHOICES? -- COMMON-LAW THEORY: CUSTOM, REASON, SOLIDARITY -- THE UTILITY OF PRECEDENTS AND ESTABLISHED RULES -- DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME! OR: CONTROLLING THE ACTIVATION OF UTILITARIAN CONSCIENCE -- LEGAL FICTIONS AND JUDICIAL AUTHORITY -- FROM POSITIVISM TO INSTITUTIONALIZATION -- CHAPTER 4 Aporias of retribution and questions of responsibility: the legacy of incarceration in Dickens's Bleak House -- OUTLASTING DISAPPOINTMENT UNDER POSITIVE LAW -- COMPLEXITIES AND COMPLICITIES: LEGAL PRACTICES AND THE NOVEL -- THEMATIZED PERSPECTIVITY -- LAW AND CRIME -- WHAT IT MEANS TO INHERIT A LEGACY OF PROPRIETORIAL EXCHANGE -- IS THERE SUCH A THING AS EQUITABLE UNNATURAL DEATH? -- RENEWAL, RETRIBUTION, REVENGE -- A RESPONSIBLE DISSIPATION OF APORIAS -- CHAPTER 5 A curse gone re-cursive: the case and cause of solidarity in Conrad's The Nigger of the ''Narcissus'' -- DISTRIBUTING COMPENSATORY JUSTICE AND JUSTIFYING THE DISTRIBUTION OF RISK -- POSITIONED FOR PAYBACK: SOCIAL INSECURITY AND THE NEGATIVE GLITZ FACTOR -- A CASE OF MURDER OR A CURSE OF EXPIATION?.

THE MULTIPLE BORDERS OF RESENTMENT, OR: ALTRUISM ON TRIAL -- ANTICIPATING WRONGFUL DEATH -- CODA: THE VERDICT OF CONFINEMENT -- CHAPTER 6 Conclusion -- Notes -- 1 INTRODUCTION -- 2 TRAPPINGS OF A TRANSNATIONAL GAZE: LEGAL AND SENTIMENTAL CONFINEMENT IN STERNE'S NOVELS -- 3 REINSTITUTIONALIZING THE COMMON LAW: BENTHAM ON THE SECURITY AND FLEXIBILITY OF LEGAL RULES -- 4 APORIAS OF RETRIBUTION AND QUESTIONS OF RESPONSIBILITY: THE LEGACY OF INCARCERATION IN DICKENS'S BLEAK HOUSE -- 5 A CURSE GONE RE-CURSIVE: THE CASE AND CAUSE OF SOLIDARITY IN CONRAD'S THE NIGGER OF THE ''NARCISSUS'' -- Index.