Lex Populi: The Jurisprudence of Popular Culture - Paperback
$35.28
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Lex Populi: The Jurisprudence of Popular Culture - Paperback
$35.28
by William P. MacNeil (Author)
In this unorthodox but highly informative work, MacNeil examines the leading issues of legal philosophy in the unlikeliest of sources: popular culture. Searching for the hidden philosophical meaning in various works of popular culture, from Tolkien and Harry Potter to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Million Dollar Baby, this book removes jurisprudence from the legal experts in order to restore it to the public at large: a lex populi by and for the people.
Front Jacket
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, Million Dollar Baby, and other cultural products are all referenced as exemplary instances of what the author calls lex populi--"people's" or "pop law." There, more than anywhere else, will one find the leading issues of legal philosophy. These issues, however, are heavily coded, for few of these pop cultural texts announce themselves as expressly legal. Nonetheless, Lex Populi reads these texts "jurisprudentially," that is, 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; Hogwarts as substantively unjust; and a seriously injured young woman as termination's rights-bearer. In so doing, Lex Populi attempts not only a jurisprudential reading of popular culture, but 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.
Back Jacket
MacNeil's work is essential to understanding the relationship between jurisprudence and popular culture. Lex Populi offers a rich web of allusions to cultural theory and legal scholarshi, and witty readings of works of popular culture."--Desmond Manderson, McGill University
"With wit and charm, William MacNeil has fashioned a compelling, insightful, and subtle account of law's relationship to popular culture. This scholarly and stylish work challenges the conventional separation of law from its popular representations, and traces their complex interconnection as we move from the age of law in the books to the era of law in" and as" the image."--Alison Young, University of Melbourne
Author Biography
William P. MacNeil is Associate Professor of Law at Griffith University.
Number of Pages: 260
Dimensions: 0.7 x 8.9 x 6 IN
Publication Date: November 30, 2009
Details
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