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Full-Text Articles in Law

Truth Tales And Trial Films, Jessica M. Silbey Dec 2007

Truth Tales And Trial Films, Jessica M. Silbey

Jessica Silbey

Investigations into law and popular culture preoccupy themselves with understanding how law and popular cultural forms work together to challenge or sustain community structures, identity and power. It is inevitable at this point in our cultural history that law and popular culture are intertwined.2 There are too many television shows, films, popular novels and web-based entertainment to withdraw “the law” (whatever that is) from the domain of popular culture. This article takes as a given the intermixing of law and popular culture, embracing it as a new feature of our popular legal consciousness. I suggest that one result of this …


A History Of Representations Of Justice: Coincident Preoccupations Of Law And Film, Jessica M. Silbey Dec 2007

A History Of Representations Of Justice: Coincident Preoccupations Of Law And Film, Jessica M. Silbey

Jessica Silbey

The American trial and the art of cinema share certain epistemological tendencies. Both stake claims to an authoritative form of knowledge based on the indubitable quality of observable phenomena. Both are preoccupied (sometimes to the point of self-defeat) with sustaining the authority that underlies the knowledge produced by visual perception. The American trial and art of cinema also increasingly share cultural space. Although the trial film (otherwise known as the courtroom drama) is as old as the medium of film the recent spate of popular trial films, be they fictional such as Runaway Jury or documentary such as Capturing the …


From Simon Cowell To Tim Gunn: What Reality Television Can Teach Us About How To Critique Our Students' Work Effectively, Michael J. Higdon Apr 2007

From Simon Cowell To Tim Gunn: What Reality Television Can Teach Us About How To Critique Our Students' Work Effectively, Michael J. Higdon

Scholarly Works

In an effort to illustrate and inform what makes for more effective critique of students' legal writing, this essay analogizes the various critiquing techniques currently taking place on the popular reality programs American Idol and Project Runway to the critiquing techniques used by legal writing professors.


“To Boldly Go Where No One Has (Arbitrated) Before”:The Star Trek Mythos As An Heuristic Paradigm For Jurisdictional And Arbitration Issues, Antonin I. Pribetic Jan 2007

“To Boldly Go Where No One Has (Arbitrated) Before”:The Star Trek Mythos As An Heuristic Paradigm For Jurisdictional And Arbitration Issues, Antonin I. Pribetic

Antonin I. Pribetic

While the topic of international arbitration has failed to capture the interest of Hollywood producers or television audiences, the science fiction genre yields a serendipitous result. Using an excerpt from a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, this brief comment analyzes the impact of law and popular culture on the issues of the rule of law, jurisdiction and international (more accurately, "intergalactic") comity within the context of bilateral and multilateral treaty obligations.


A History Of Representations Of Justice: Coincident Preoccupations Of Law And Film, Jessica Silbey Jan 2007

A History Of Representations Of Justice: Coincident Preoccupations Of Law And Film, Jessica Silbey

Faculty Scholarship

The American trial and the art of cinema share certain epistemological tendencies. Both stake claims to an authoritative form of knowledge based on the indubitable quality of observable phenomena. Both are preoccupied (sometimes to the point of self-defeat) with sustaining the authority that underlies the knowledge produced by visual perception. The American trial and art of cinema also increasingly share cultural space. Although the trial film (otherwise known as the courtroom drama) is as old as the medium of film the recent spate of popular trial films, be they fictional such as Runaway Jury or documentary such as Capturing the …