Law, Lawyers, and the Legal System in Film, Chapman University (Fowler)

The class focuses on film portrayals of law, lawyers, and the legal system as a means of exploring questions of public policy, jurisprudence, professional responsibility, and even personal philosophy and psychology all through the lens of filmic storytelling and filmmaking technique. Topics to be discussed include the adversary system, ethical dilemmas, various lawyer-character archetypes, the jury system, the role of judges, the tension between popular notions of justice and certain legal regimes, and the strengths and limits of the legal system as a means of resolving disputes and providing remedies. This information has been collected for the Post-Discipline Online Syllabus Database. The database explores the use of literature by schools of professional education in North America. It forms part of a larger project titled Post-Discipline: Literature, Professionalism, and the Crisis of the Humanities, led by Dr Merve Emre with the assistance of Dr Hayley G. Toth. You can find more information about the project at https://postdiscipline.english.ox.ac.uk/. Data was collected and accurate in 2021/22.