This paper explores the intersections of love and the law as they appear in Charlotte Lennox's 1752 novel The Female Quixote. Criticised in literary circles for its treatment of the romance, it is argued that Lennox's satirical narrative has a more serious generic and legal argument, articulated in the constructed fantasies of her heroine, Arabella. Drawing on Peter Goodrich's writings on the Courts of Love and Luce Irigarary's work on the 'hysteric', this article looks to illustrate the way in which the patriarchal legal order has defined the limits of love within society, positioning it ultimately as an imaginary jurisdiction indulged in 'by the follies of the feminine mind'. By providing an account of how law functions and is represented within society, it argues that the novel seeks to expose this entrenched repression of the female (body [of law]) throughout history.