Law and Justice on the Small Screen - 9781849462693

Law and Justice on the Small Screen is a wide-ranging collection of essays about law in and on television. In light of the book's innovative taxonomy of the field and its international reach, it makes a novel contribution to the scholarly literature about law and popular culture. Television shows from the US, Canada, France, the UK, Germany, and Spain are discussed. The essays are organized into three sections: (1) methodological questions regarding the analysis of law and popular culture on television, (2) a focus on genre studies within television programming (including a subsection on reality television), and (3) content analysis of individual television shows with attention to big-picture jurisprudential questions of law's efficacy and the promise of justice. The book's content is organized to make it appropriate for undergraduate and graduate classes in the following areas: media studies, law and culture, socio-legal studies, comparative law, jurisprudence, the law of lawyering, alternative dispute resolution, and criminal law. ***"This is an important book for legal academics, students and practitioners who wish to explore the diverse impacts and 'meanings' of TV portrayals of legal matters in our society. More than that, the volume provides excellent teaching and learning material, raising many jurisprudential issues in the context of narratives discussed by the authors..." - Alternative Law Journal, Law & Culture, 2013, Vol. 38(1)