Law and Popular Culture: A Course Book

Both law and popular culture pervade our lives. Movies and television shape our perception of law and change how players in the legal system behave. Now in its third edition, Law and Popular Culture: A Course Book explores the interface between these enormously important subjects. Jessica Silbey joins Michael Asimow as a co-author of the book.

Each chapter examines a particular law-related subject, such as the adversary system, the life of lawyers, legal education, or family law. Each chapter is structured around a legally-themed film or television show, such as Philadelphia, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Lincoln Lawyer, or LA Law, treating each of them as both a cultural text and a legal text.

The book is written in an engaging style without theoretical jargon and can serve as a basic text for undergraduate or graduate courses and seminars. It can be taught by anyone who enjoys pop culture and is interested in law. An instructor's manual is available on request.

MICHAEL ASIMOW is Dean's Executive Professor of Law, Santa Clara Law School, and Professor of Law Emeritus, UCLA School of Law. He teaches law and popular culture as well as contract law, taxation, and administrative law. Asimow is the editor of Lawyers In Your Living Room: Law on Television (2009) and co-author with Paul Bergman of Real to Reel: Truth and Trickery in Courtroom Movies (2021) and has written numerous articles about law and pop culture.

JESSICA SILBEY is Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law. She teaches and writes in the areas of intellectual property and constitutional law. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018 for her work at the intersection of law and the humanities. She authored The Eureka Myth: Creators, Innovators and Everyday Intellectual Property (2015) and she has also published widely in the field of law and film, including two co-edited volumes Trial Films on Trial (2019) and Law and Justice on the Small Screen (2012).