Project Gutenberg 2008-01-14 Public domain in the USA. 94 Nourse, Alan Edward 1928 1992 Edwards, Al Nourse, Alan E. (Alan Edward) Letter of the Law Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net "Letter of the Law" by Alan Edward Nourse is a science fiction short story likely written in the early to mid-20th century. The narrative centers around themes of justice, deception, and cultural misunderstanding as it explores the complexities of interplanetary legal systems and the consequences of actions taken by individuals unacquainted with alien customs. It delves into the interaction between humans and the Altairians, shedding light on the societal norms that dictate the nature of truth and law for the inhabitants of Altair I. The story follows Paul Meyerhoff, who is tasked with dealing with Harry Zeckler, a con artist who has been imprisoned for defrauding the native Altairians by selling the same piece of land to multiple buyers. As Meyerhoff attempts to navigate the bizarre legal proceedings in the alien court, he realizes that the Altairian legal system is built on a culture where truth is convoluted, and lying is a survival tactic. As the trial unfolds with ludicrous accusations against Zeckler, he concocts a dramatic defense based on the paradox of being a liar, turning the courtroom chaos to his favor. Ultimately, his ploy not only secures his own release but also complicates future relations between Earth and Altair, leaving Meyerhoff with the burden of managing the fallout from Zeckler's actions. (This is an automatically generated summary.) en Science fiction Short stories Legal stories PS Text Science Fiction Browsing: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Browsing: Fiction 59721 59730 2024-09-10T10:52:42.558005 2023-09-11T04:21:31.380647 text/html text/html 56251 2021-01-03T06:43:11 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 22271 2021-01-03T06:43:11 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 67255 2024-09-10T10:52:45.555950 application/epub+zip 66283 2024-09-10T10:52:43.644982 application/epub+zip 66283 2024-09-10T10:52:42.945003 application/epub+zip 135058 2024-09-10T10:52:47.070951 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 127970 2024-09-10T10:52:45.128961 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 128167 2022-09-11T09:14:08.404378 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 53628 53527 2024-09-10T10:52:42.351974 2023-09-11T04:21:31.198644 text/plain; charset=us-ascii text/plain 53512 2021-01-03T06:43:11 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 21221 2021-01-03T06:43:11 text/plain; charset=us-ascii application/zip 18836 2024-09-10T10:52:47.208951 application/rdf+xml 10850 2024-09-10T10:52:43.289957 image/jpeg 2943 2024-09-10T10:52:43.119976 image/jpeg 66550 2024-09-10T10:52:42.564975 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia