Lex Populi: The Jurisprudence of Popular CultureStanford University Press, 2007 - 241 pages This is a book about jurisprudence--or legal philosophy. The legal philosophical texts under consideration are--to say the least--unorthodox. Tolkien, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Harry Potter, Legally Blonde, and others are referenced as instances of what the author calls lex populi--"pop law". Here, however, issues of legal philosophy are heavily coded, for few of these pop cultural texts announce themselves as expressly legal. Lex Populi reads these texts "jurisprudentially", with an eye to their hidden legal philosophical meanings, enabling connections such as: Tolkien's Ring as Kelsen's grundnorm; vampire slaying as legal language's semiosis; and Hogwarts as substantively unjust. Lex Populi attempts not only a jurisprudential reading of popular culture, but also a popular rereading of jurisprudence, removing it from the legal experts in order to restore it to the public at large: a lex populi by and for the people. |
Contents
Toward an Intertextual Jurisprudence | 1 |
Harry Potter and the Scales of Justice | 11 |
You Slay Me Buffy as Jurisprude of Desire | 28 |
The First Rule of Fight Club IsYou Do Not Talk About Fight Club | 44 |
One Recht to Rule Them All Laws Empire in the Age of Empire | 80 |
Law School as Training for Hersteria | 97 |
Its the Vibe The Common Law Imaginary Down Under | 116 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
20th Century Fox accessed September 2006 American Australian BtVS Buffy Cambridge Castle chapter cinematic common law Concept of Law court critique cultural legal desire directed by James directed by Joss discourse Edited Empire Episode Ethics example fantasy Feminism Feminist fiction Fight Club film Frankie global Griffith Law Review H.L.A. Hart Hardt and Negri Harry Potter Hogwarts Holmes Home Entertainment house elves HP&GF Indigenous J.R.R. Tolkien Jacques Lacan Joss Whedon jurisprudence jurisprudential Justice Kelsen Kerrigans Kingsfield Lacanian Law and Economics Law School law’s Legal Education Legally Blonde lex populi London Lord LR-FR Mabo Macquarie Marti Noxon Million Dollar Baby Minority Report native title Oxford University Press Paper Chase perverse Peter phallus politics Popular Culture postmodern Precrime Psychoanalysis Ramon Ring Ronald Dworkin Routledge Sauron scene Sea Inside Season Slavoj Žižek Slayer slaying social Stromwell Sydney Theory of Law tion Tolkien trans Vampire Verso York