1 See, e.g., Kieran Dolin, A Critical Introduction to Law and Literature (2007). The movement emerged as a major force through the work of James Boyd White, most significantly with James Boyd White, The Legal Imagination: Studies in the Nature of Legal Thought and Expression (1973). This line of thought about law has evolved in many directions and now has too many permutations to allow summary in a footnote. It has had a major impact on jurisprudence generally through Ronald Dworkin's building his theories of law around law as a multi-generational narrative. See Ronald M. Dworkin, Taking Rights Seriously 81–149 (1977). There is even a journal denominated Law and Literature.Google Scholar

2 Consider the novels of John Grisham: A Time to Kill (1999); The Firm (1991); The King of Torts (2003); The Rainmaker (2005); The Runaway Jury (1997); The Street Lawyer (1998). See also Marijane Camilleri, Comment, Lessons in Law from Literature: A Look at the Movement and a Peer at Her Jury, 39 Cath. U. L. Rev. 557 (1990); Randalph N. Jonakait, Law in the Plays of Elmer Rice, 19 Law & Lit. 401 (2007); Richard Weisberg, How Judges Speak: Some Lessons on Adjudication in Billy Budd, Sailor with an Application to Justice Rehnquist, 57 NYU L. Rev. 1 (1982).Google Scholar

3 See, e.g., Orit Kamir, To Kill a Songbird: A Community of Women, Feminist Jurisprudence, Conscientious Objection, and A Jury of Her Peers and Contemporary Film, 19 Law & Lit. 357 (2007); Suan Mann, Note, The Universe and the Library: A Critique of James Boyd White as Writer and Reader, 41 Stan. L. Rev. 959 (1989); Ticien Marie Sassoubre, The Value of Legal Irony: Legal Orthodoxy and Henry James' Washington Square, 95 Cal. L. Rev. 1027 (2006); Kenji Yoshino, The City and the Poet, 114 Yale L.J. 1835 (2004).Google Scholar

4 See, e.g., William P. MacNeil, Lex Populi: The Jurisprudence of Popular Culture (2007); Richard K. Sherwin, When Law Goes Pop: The Vanishing Line between Law and Popular Culture (2000); Alex B. Long, [Insert Song Lyrics Here]: The Uses and Misuses of Popular Music Lyrics in Legal Writing, 64 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 531 (2007); Symposium, Law and Popular Culture, 48 UCLA L. Rev. 1293–1591 (2001); Symposium, Law and Popular Culture, 24 Nova L. Rev. 527–700 (2000).Google Scholar

5 39 Authors, The Jurisprudence of Yogi Berra, 46 Emory L.J. 697 (1997). Citations to real or imagined comments by the great Yogi are legion in law reviews and books by lawyers, usually in settings having nothing to do with baseball and sometimes involving quotations that Yogi probably never uttered. See, e.g., Joseph W. Dellapenna, Dispelling the Myths of Abortion History 358, 453, 576, 585, 697, 722, 820, 846, 887, 979 (2006); Gideon Parchomovsky, Fair Use Harbors, 39 Va. L. Rev. 1483, 1525 (2007).Google Scholar

6 Symposium, The Lawyer as Poet Advocate: Bruce Springsteen and the American Lawyer, 14 Widener L.J. 719–988 (2005).Google Scholar

7 See, e.g., Symposium, The Power of Stories: Intersections of Law, Literature, and Culture—Harry Potter, Law, and Culture, 12 Tex. Wesleyan L. Rev. 427–84 (2005).Google Scholar

8 See, e.g., Thomas C. Grey, The Wallace Stevens Case: Law and the Practice of Poetry (1991); David A. Skeel, jr., Notes Toward an Aesthetic of Legal Pragmatism, 78 Cornell L. Rev. 84 (1979) (analyzing the relation between Stevens’ poetry and his practice as a corporate lawyer).Google Scholar

9 Martha Nussbaum, Poetic Justice (1995); Richard H. Weisberg, Poethics and Other Strategies of Law and Literature (1992); Adam Geary, The Poetics of Practical Reason: Joseph Raz and Philip Larkin, 19 Law & Lit. 377 (2007); Lawrence Joseph, Theories of Poetry, Theories of Law, 46 Vand. L. Rev. 1227 (1993).Google Scholar

10 See, e.g., Steve Greenfield et al., Film and the Law (2001); Screening Justice—The Cinema of Law (Rennard Strickland, Teree E. Foster, & Taunya Lovell Banks eds. 2006).Google Scholar

11 Touchstone Films, 1999, PG–13.Google Scholar

12 Anthony Chase, Civil Action Cinema, 1999 L. Rev. Mich. St. Univ. Det. C.L. 945; Elaine D. Pappas, Comment, Legal Ethics: Lawyers’ Duties to Clients and Clients’ Rights and the Media—Teaching Legal Ethics Using a Media Studies Lesson Plan, 24 Nova L. Rev. 701 (2000).Google Scholar

13 Jersey Films, 2000, R.Google Scholar

14 See, e.g., James F. d'Entremont, Fear Factor: The Future of Cancerphobia and Fear of Future Disease Claims in the Toxicogenomic Age, 52 Loy. L. Rev. 807 (2006).Google Scholar

15 See, e.g., Stefan Machura, An Analysis Scheme for Law Films, 36 U. Bal. L. Rev. 329 (2007); Rebecca Porter, Lawyers on the Big Screen, 38 Trial, Mar. 2002, at 54. This tradition, of course, has rich literary sources. See, e.g., Weisberg, supra note 2.Google Scholar

16 One need only recall “Rumpole of the Baily” (BBC TV, 1978–1992) to demonstrate this fact.Google Scholar

17 See, e.g., Michael Asimow, Kramer v. Kramer (1979): Family Law in the Movies, in Screening Justice, supra note 8, at 373, 387 (discussing the several procedural errors in the film's trial scenes). See generally Stephen Landsman, The Perils of Courtroom Stories (book rev.), 98 Mich. L. Rev. 2154 (2000).Google Scholar

18 See, e.g., Screening Justice, supra note 8; Symposium, Law & Cinema Special Issue, 36 U. Bal. L. Rev. 303–91 (2006).Google Scholar

19 See, e.g., Michael Scharf & Lawrence Roberts, The Interstellar Relations of the Federation: International Law and Star Trek: The Next Generation, 25 U. Tor. L. Rev. 577 (1994). Cf Robin West, Authority, Autonomy, and Choice: The Role of Consent in the Moral and Political Vision of Franz Kafka and Richard Posner, 99 Harv. L. Rev. 384 (1985) (examining the jurisprudence of Richard Posner through the prism of the surreal writings of Franz Kafka).Google Scholar

20 See, e.g., Orit Kamir, Framed: Women in Law and Film (2006); José E. Alvarez, How We Teach: The Final Reel, in IL Post (Oct. 11, 2007), available at www.asil.org/ilpost/president/pres071010.html. For a literary analogue, see Anita Allen, The Jurisprudence of Jane Eyre, 15 Harv. Women's L.J. 173 (1992).Google Scholar

21 See Richard K. Sherwin, A Manifesto for Visual Legal Realism, 40 Loy. L.A. L. Rev.___ (forthcoming 2007), available at ssn.com/abstract=1004307.Google Scholar

22 My impression is that even in Louisiana, which ostensibly follows the civil law tradition, the impact of being embedded in the common-law based United States renders trials there (with a jury, etc.) unrepresentative of the civil law tradition's trials generally. I do not claim that this is a result of any sort of systematic study, however.Google Scholar

23 In my course, I teach units on European (primarily French and German, but with some information on Italian and Spanish) law, on Chinese law, and on Islamic law, with a nod or two in the direction of the legal systems of indigenous peoples following a traditional life style, and hence in the direction of the legal pluralism that generally surrounds such indigenous peoples.Google Scholar

24 J.M. Balkin, as quoted in Gary Minda, Jurisprudence at Century's End, 43 J. Legal Educ. 27, 53 (1993).Google Scholar

25 For fine examples of potential civil claims over the legal rights to a spring, one could watch two films, Jean de Florette (France 1986) and its continuation Manon des sources (“Manon of the Spring”) (France 1986). Manon des sources is often described as a “sequel” to Jean de Florette, but given the inferior results characteristic of most “sequels” in film, and given that the two films were made together, the term “continuation” is more accurate.Google Scholar

26 See, e.g., Kriegsgericht (“Court Martial”) (German Fed. Rep., 1959); Prijeki Sud (“Court Martial”) (Yugoslavia, 1978).Google Scholar

27 Consider in this regard my discussion of The Red Corner, infra at notes 53–59.Google Scholar

28 I have personally observed trials similar to those in three of the four films—the fourth is set at the end of the middle ages.Google Scholar

29 In my experience, students usually have learned little or nothing about English legal history (the source of our legal tradition) before coming to my course, even if they have taken an elective course on legal history.Google Scholar

30 The Parlement de Toulouse was the highest court in the region of Languedoc. See René David & Henry P. De Vries, The French Legal System 10 (1958).Google Scholar

31 See Natalie Zemon Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre (1983).Google Scholar

32 (USA, 1993, PC-13) It starred Richard Gere and Jodie Foster.Google Scholar

33 This unlikely circumstance is actually in the written summary of the trial prepared by Jean de Coras, the lead judge.Google Scholar

34 While this might be a plausible explanation of Bertrande's role in the trial, there is no record of any such an admission on her part.Google Scholar

35 Martin Guerre's family appears to be the most prosperous family in the village, with some jealously on the part of other villagers playing a role in the film, particularly in the early scenes.Google Scholar

36 Bertrande is married off to a boy who doesn't love her, has to be an obedient servant to her uncle until her “husband” returns, and must face living the rest of her life with a man who despises her betrayal of him with the pseudo-Martin. I point out to my students that perhaps one reason she chose her real husband over the man she is presented as loving was to protect the daughter she bore to the pseudo-Martin, a child who would have no one to care for her if her mother were also condemned for participating in the fraud of the girl's father.Google Scholar

37 There are strong suggestions that the real Martin's sexual problems with Bertrande and the source of his difficulties with his father arose because the real Martin was homosexual, or perhaps one should say wasn't very manly—if one defines, as was common at the time, manliness as heterosexual.Google Scholar

38 She did play the mother of Frank Abagnale, jr. (Leonardo de Caprio) in Catch Me if You Can (USA, 2002, PG-13).Google Scholar

39 13 G.J. 303 (S. Ct. Columbia 1970). A translation of the court's opinions is in Merryman et al., at 658–64. See also David S. Clark, Witchcraft and Legal Pluralism: The Case of Celimo Miquirucama, 15 Tulsa L.J. 679 (1980).Google Scholar

40 The Hmong were a stone-age people who helped the United States in the jungles of Laos, many of whom were transported at the end of the war to the United States. They had, and to some extent continue to have, difficulty adjusting to living in an urban, or at least western, setting in the United States, difficulties that often manifest themselves in troubles with the legal system. See, e.g., Jerry L. Anderson, Comparative Perspectives on Property Rights: The Right to Exclude, 56 J. Legal Educ. 539, 544–46 (2006) (describing a shooting by a Hmong man who trespassed onto private land while hunting); Deirdre Evans-Pritchard & Alison Dundes Renteln, The Interpretation and Distortion of Culture: A Hmong “Marriage by Capture “ Case in Fresno, California, 4 S. Cal. Interdisc. L.J. 1 (1995).Google Scholar

41 Few people seem to notice that the two The Gods Must Be Crazy films also comment pointedly on law or lawyers. In the first film, the hero, a bushman from the Kalahari desert, is arrested and briefly sent to jail; the second film turns on an American lawyer, a young woman, who gets lost in the desert while attending a conference in South Africa.Google Scholar

42 Later, after the court adjourns, the white lawyer tells Ntuku, “If he (Masaba) is guilty, we will hang him for you. We're civilized here.”Google Scholar

43 In some ways, Ms. Prowse's own career mirrored the role she plays in Dingaka. She had a brief career as a film actress, a long career as a nightclub performer, and is perhaps best remembered today as having been briefly engaged to marry Frank Sinatra.Google Scholar

44 Other racial groups, such as Indians (South Asian) and “Colored” (persons of mixed blood) do not appear in the film.Google Scholar

45 Gong Li did win the best actress award at the Venice International Film Festival for this movie.Google Scholar

46 The assault occurred because the husband, in a moment of anger, had accused the chief of raising only “hens.” The chief has four daughters and no sons.Google Scholar

47 The dispute leading to the assault occurs because the chief refused to give Qiu Ju and her husband permission to build a shed on their land.Google Scholar

48 The movie allegedly is based upon an actual event, except that the murder victim was a young woman in the putative “real life” story from which it derives. Given the political cast of the movie, this is spectacular change.Google Scholar

49 Since the lay people sitting behind desks to the side of the court are barely glimpsed, there is no information provided in the film as to which function (juror or lay assessor) they perform. On these two different systems of lay involvement in judging, see John D. Jackson, Lay Adjudication and Human Rights in Europe, 13 Colum. J. Eur. L. 83 (2006).Google Scholar

50 Curiously, there is never student uproar over A Question of Silence. Apparently misandry is more acceptable than misogyny to today's law students.Google Scholar

51 I see the film as strongly suggesting that Sandra would not have charged Lorenzo with rape had he not had the keys. Others have disagreed with this interpretation.Google Scholar

52 Some might say I am being kind with the word “almost.”Google Scholar

53 TIAS no. 6820, 21 UST 77 (1969).Google Scholar

54 Ex Parte Medellin, 223 S.W.3d 315 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006), cert. granted, 127 S. Ct. 2129 (2007).Google Scholar

55 The Case of Avena and other Mexican Nationals (Mexico v. United States), ICJ 31 Mar. 2004; The Case of La Grand (Germany v. United States), ICJ 27 June 2001; The Case of the Vienna Convetion on Consular Relations (Paraguay v. United States), ICJ 9 Apr. 1998.Google Scholar

56 See, e.g., Mure Dickie, Beijing Brings out Touch New Regulations for Lawyers, Fin. Times USA, May 22, 2006, at 3; Maureen Fan, Chinese Rights Activist Stands Trial after Police Detain Defense Team, Wash. Post, Aug. 19, 2006, at A10; Maureen Fan, Attorney for Jailed Chinese Activist Cites Obstruction, Wash. Post, Aug. 31, 2006, at A19; Joseph Kahn, Chinese Dissident Says Confession Was Coerced, N.Y. Times, Apr. 10, 2007, at A10; Peter Ford, In China, New Crackdown on Dissidents, Christian Sci. Monitor, Oct. 15, 2007, at 1; Chan Siu-Sin, Lawyer Fighting for Oil Investors Gets 1-Year Bail, S. China Morning Post, Sept. 23, 2005, at 6; Didi Kerstin Tatlow, Human Rights Lawyer Says He Was Tortured, S. China Morning Post, Oct. 3, 2007, at 5.Google Scholar

57 The fact that they were able to film at all in China, especially in Beijing, for a part of a movie this critical of China itself demonstrates just how far well placed bribes can get you in China.Google Scholar

58 See, e.g., Carrie Rickey, Finding His Humanitarian Path, Phila. Inquirer, Nov. 13, 2007, at D1.Google Scholar

59 Stories of foreign business arrested on trumped up charges continue to leak out of China. While not so dramatic as in The Red Corner, these stories deserve to be more widely known than they are. See, e.g., Chris Buckley, For Entrepreneur, Business Trip Ends in a Chinese Jail, N.Y. Times, Jan. 18, 2005, at C6; Chris Buckley, Spot on China's Image: U.S. CEO “Hostage” in Business Dispute, Int'l Herald Trib., May 18, 2005, at 1; Stephanie Fitch, Held Hostage in China, 176 Forbes no. 10, at 142 (Nov. 14, 2005); Nicholas Keung, China Holds GTA Man in Jail without Charge; Mississauga Electronics Supplier Held for Four Months in Business Dispute, Toronto Star, Feb. 20, 2007, at A1.Google Scholar