The People’s Court

Publication Date

Spring 2010

Journal

Law & Literature

Abstract

William MacNeil’s Lex Populi, as its name implies, examines “‘People’s law’ or, more loosely, ‘pop law’”—law as reflected by contemporary popular culture. What distinguishes this work from many “law-and-literature” studies is that it avoids “literature” and “cinema” in favor of mass market entertainment and cult favorites such as the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series. MacNeil’s point is that the scope of “law” cannot be confined to the legal because law is not an autonomous field, but an inherent and essential part of the “symbolic”—the social, intersubjective order that also includes language and sexuality. Drawing from varied sources including postmodernism (e.g., Derrida, Foucault, Levinas), critical theory (e.g., Lacan, Badiou, Butler, Žižek), and Anglophone jurisprudence (e.g., Hart, Dworkin, Posner), MacNeil makes such surprising discoveries as how Minority Report illustrates neoclassical economic theory’s hatred of freedom, how Fight Club reveals the hidden role of perverse violence in legal positivism, and what the Harvard law school duo, The Paper Chase and Legally Blonde, can tell us about the relationship of law and sexual identity. As such, this book is as fun to read as it is insightful.

Volume

22

Issue

1

First Page

180

Last Page

198

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Disciplines

Contracts | Insurance Law | Law

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