Course syllabus
Overview
Law and lawyers feature in many novels, movies, and television shows. These literary and cinematic portrayals give us an interesting perspective from which to examine some key issues in the philosophy of law (here broadly construed), issues such as the relation between law and justice, integrity, the moral demands of roles, and the ethics of legal practice. Approaching these issues through film and literature gives us the opportunity to address both the issues themselves (where the works might serve mainly as graphic portrayals of the same issues philosophers address in more traditional philosophical genres), and questions about why those issues are portrayed as they are.
From week two we will talk about one or two movies per week.
Normally I will give a lecture, which will include excerpts from the movie or movies set for that week. (I will endeavour to make the movies available - especially of those which are not readily available - and we maybe able to organise weekly showings). We will also look at relevant articles and other material, including, in some cases, the book the movie was based on. I do not expect you all to watch every movie or read every book in the week in which they are discussed, though I imagine all of you will have seen some of them, and you will need to be familiar with a reasonable selection of them by the end of the course, and to know those relevant to your essay in detail.
Lectures
Mondays 3pm-5pm, Humanities Building, Room 301
The following is a rough guide. You will see some open slots toward the end. We will talk about what material to cover in those sessions.
Week One: Monday July 24
Introduction: The themes of the course
Law and Justice.
Integrity.
Roles and Role Obligation.
Law and Lawyers in Movies, Novels and Television.
Ethics and Lawyers.
Week Two: Monday July 31
The Movie: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
The Book: Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)
The Reading:
Week Three: Monday August 7
The Movie: Billy Budd (1962)
The Book: Herman Melville, Billy Budd, Sailor: An Inside Narrative (1924)
The Reading:
Christopher Gowans, ‘“The Angel Must hang”: Inescapable moral Wrongdoing in Melville’s Billy Budd’, Chapter 1 of Gowans Innocence Lost: An Examination of Inescapable moral Wrongdoing, pp.1-24
Atkinson, R, ‘Averting the Captain Vere 'Veer': Billy Budd as Melville's Republican Response to Plato’ http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1136260
The Hard Case- Billy Budd and the Judgement Intuitive.pdf
Week Four: Monday August 14
No Lecture
Week Five: Monday August 21
The Movie: Remains of the Day (1993)
The Book: Kazuo Ishiguro The Remains of the Day (1989)
The Reading:
Rob Atkinson ‘How the Butler was made to do it: The Perverted professionalism of the Remains of the Day’ 105 Yale LJ 177 (1995)
David Luban ‘Stevens’s Professionalism and Ours’ 38 William and Mary L Rev. 297 (1996)
Week Six: Monday August 28
The Movie: Pierrepoint (2007)
The Book: Executioner: Pierrepoint Albert Pierrepoint (1974)
The Reading:
Arthur Applbaum, ‘Professional Detachment: The Executioner of Paris’ 109 Harv. L. Rev. 458 (1995-1996)
Powerpoint: Pierrepoint - Distance Detachment and Integrity
Mid Semester Break - September 4-17.
Week Seven: Monday September 18
The Movie: The Verdict (1982)
The Book: Barry Reed The Verdict (1980)
The Reading:
William Simon The Practice of Justice (Harvard University Press, 1988) (excerpts to be provided).
Week Eight: Monday September 25
The Movie: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence (1962)
The Book:
The Reading:
Michael Böhnke, ‘Myth and Law in the Films of John Ford’ (2001) 28 Journal of Law and Society 47-63
Week Nine: Monday October 2
The Movie: Cape Fear (1962) and Cape Fear (1992)
The Book:
The Reading:
Week Ten: Monday October 9
The Movie: My Cousin Vinnie (1992)
The Book:
The Reading:
Week Eleven: Monday October 16
The Movie: To be selected
The Book:
The Reading:
Week Twelve: Monday October 23
Wrap-up: putting it together
Course summary:
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