Archiwum Filozofii Prawai Filozofii Społecznej

Journal of the Polish Section of IVR (ISSN:2082-3304)

IVRwww.ivr.org.pl

Search Results for: law and film

Issue 1(26)/2021 „Archiwum…”: „Law and Film” is available

We invite you to read the latest issue of „Archiwum Filozofii Prawa i Filozofii Społecznej”, the Journal of the Polish Section of IVR entitled “Law and Film”. The issue was edited by dr Paweł Jabłoński and dr hab. Maciej Pichlak, and includes the following papers:

  • Prof. dr hab. Kamil Zeidler: Law in Film as a Manifestation of Aesthetics of Law and a Special Case of Law and Literature Movement
  • Mgr Marta Dubowska: Jurisprudence Popularized: Between Law, Literature, and Film
  • Prof. UG dr hab. Tomasz Widłak: Lawyers’ Role Models on the Example of “Monkey Trial” in Stanley Kramer’s Film “Inherit the Wind”
  • Dr Paweł Jabłoński: Between Justice and Mercy: Comparison of American and Russian Versions of 12 Angry Men
  • Mgr Katarzyna Krzyżanowska: Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan: The Unbearable State of Nature
  • Mgr Szymon Osmala: They Live… and They Make Consumer Law a Poor Instrument of Distributive Justice
  • Mgr Karolina Kocemba: Fairytale (R)Evolution? Women’s Rights and Disney Movies
  • Mgr Mateusz Grabarczyk: Pasikowski’s “Pigs” as an Illustration of Vetting in a Transitional Society
  • Mgr Marlena Drapalska-Grochowicz: Recognizing, Overlooking, Ignoring: On the Legislator’s Attitudes Towards Actual Closeness

The issue also includes the introduction Law and Film: Introduction by dr Paweł Jabłoński and dr hab. Maciej Pichlak, and the text In Memoriam of dr Maciej Kłodawski by prof. dr hab. Krzysztof Płeszka and dr Michał Araszkiewicz.

The issue is available HERE.

Jurisprudence Popularized: Between Law, Literature, and Film

Mgr Marta Dubowska

Jagiellonian University in Kraków

Abstract: In this paper I discuss the apparent similarities between the “literate approach” and the aspiring “visual media approach”. Then, I scrutinize arguments for utility of the second approach. It seems that even though both approaches are founded on similar humanistic considerations, they are nonetheless separate positions; thus the need to justify the application of the second approach independently of the first. As an important task in due course I consider debunking the arguments in support of accusations of the “law and film” movement of being a threat to law and its legitimacy (as related to the “law going pop” argument by Richard K. Sherwin).

Keywords: law and literature, law and film, law and popular culture, narrative, jurisprudence

Language: English

Published: Number 1(26)/2021, s. 21-32.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2021.1.21

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Number of downloads: 616

Law in Film as a Manifestation of Aesthetics of Law and a Special Case of Law and Literature Movement

Prof. dr hab. Kamil Zeidler

University of Gdańsk

English abstract: If we put together and systematize research streams: law in film, law and literature, and aesthetics of law, it is easy to reach the conclusion that we are dealing with related subjects, with a certain overlap in research areas. The broadest term is aesthetics of law, whose scope covers the entire law and literature movement, meanwhile law in film is a more detailed aspect of the latter.

Systematizing the aesthetics of law, we can close it in three aspects: the external one, the internal one, and the one called ‘law as a device for aesthetization’. The aesthetics of law in the external aspect deals with manifestations of law, legal inspirations, legal themes, symbols, signs, which were represented through centuries in fine arts. The subject of the aesthetics of law in the internal aspect is the law itself. The third aspect of the aesthetics of law focuses on law as a device for aesthetization of daily life.

In the law and literature movement, the reflections concern either the inclusion of legislative and legal content in literary works (law in literature), or the literary, including aesthetic, value, of normative instruments, and more broadly, also other acts of applying the law (law as literature). A special case of this research stream is legal cinematography, where a film prepared on the basis of a screenplay is treated as a kind of narrative, justifying the statement that law in film further develops the law and literature movement.

The practical aspect of such research – of legal aesthetics, law and literature, and law in film – concerns mainly the significance and influence on legal awareness, and on shaping the attitudes towards law. The key thing here is approaching the problem of influencing legal awareness through other means than the text of a normative instrument alone.

Keywords: aesthetics of law, law and literature, law in film, legal cinematography, legal awareness

Language: Polish

Published: Number 1(26)/2021, pp. 8-20.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2021.1.8

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Number of downloads: 695

Aesthetics of Law

A thematic collection of the “Archive of Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy”. Texts in the aesthetics of law – the field studying the relations between law and beauty. All articles are available free of charge in open access.

What is the aesthetics of law

The aesthetics of law asks about the relations between law and beauty in three perspectives: law as an object of aesthetic evaluation (the language, form and symbolism of law), law in art – from painting and literature to film – and art as an object of legal regulation. In Polish scholarship the research programme of legal aesthetics was developed by Kamil Zeidler (the monograph Estetyka prawa, 2018), and the field – akin to the law and literature movement – has become a recognisable Polish speciality in world legal philosophy.

Selected texts

See also

Classics of Modern Legal Philosophy and Theory · Law and Morality.

For authors

The “Archive” publishes articles in legal theory and philosophy – including the aesthetics of law and the law and literature movement – in Polish and English, in open access with no publication charges and with double-blind peer review. The journal is indexed in Scopus, DOAJ and ERIH PLUS (100 points on the Polish ministerial list). See the guidelines for authors.

An editorial collection. Last updated: July 2026.

Fairytale (R)Evolution? Women’s Rights and Disney Movies

Mgr Karolina Kocemba

University of Wrocław

English abstract: In the article, the author raises the issue of socialization of children through popular culture. She assumes that popular culture can be treated as a carrier of values and patterns of conduct, and also as a key factor of socialization. The codes, contexts or values that are conveyed through animated movies, are what a child can later refer to the surrounding reality. In this way, it is possible to learn family, professional or gender roles, which are then perpetuated in play. The author explores primarily the impact of popular culture through an analysis of animated films produced by Walt Disney Pictures, in which the main characters are princesses and in which gender roles get considerable exposure. Assuming that gender is socially constructed, we learn about gender norms through interactions with people and popular culture, which convey to us the norms and values of the society we live in. The author points out how the patterns conveyed by Disney movies have changed and what their relationship with women’s rights was. Simultaneously, the author analyses the impact of these films on legal culture, trying to see how animated movies affect legal awareness and attitudes towards the law, and what patterns are passed on to the youngest citizens.

Keywords: women’s rights, socialization, popular culture, legal culture, sociology of film

Language: Polish

Published: Number 1(26)/2021, pp. 86-99.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2021.1.86

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Number of downloads: 751

They Live… and They Make Consumer Law a Poor Instrument of Distributive Justice

Mgr Szymon Osmola

European University Institute, Florence

English abstract: Even though consumer contract law concerns voluntary agreements between private parties, it is often considered to be an instrument of the principle of distributive justice, according to which the design of social institutions should benefit the worse-off members of society. The article claims that such a view is mistaken. It appeals to the so-called status quo argument, according to which interpreting consumer law as an instrument of distributive justice may entrench the current, unjust state of affairs, and therefore compound, rather than eradicate, distributive injustice. Within that framework, consumer law is treated as the legal instantiation of consumer culture, which, even if not inherently unjust, poses several risks for individuals and their overall wellbeing. Apart from presenting the abstract argument, the article illustrates it with a vivid example from popular culture – John Carpenter’s iconic film They Live.

Keywords: consumer law, contract law, distributive justice, They Live

Language: English

Published: Number 1(26)/2021, pp. 76-85.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2021.1.76

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Number of downloads: 578

Andrey Zvyagintsev’s ‘Leviathan’: The Unbearable State of Nature

Mgr Katarzyna Krzyżanowska

European University Institute, Florence

Abstract: Leviathan by Andrey Zvyagintsev is a  movie that depicts the world in a  state of nature, with no prospects for creating a Hobbesian social contract. Set in the Russian peripheries, the film depicts a respected and caring family man who is gradually deprived of everything because of lack of political order with enforceable law and justice. The movie is a depiction of a contemporary “failed state”, equalized with the state of nature, where there is no legitimate power and violence remains the only tool to achieve goals both in private and public spheres. Religion consists of empty rituals that serve corrupt officials to maintain power. This world cannot last without innocent victims, scapegoats of the society, one of whom is the protagonist of the movie. This paper offers a legal and philosophical inquiry into the film, as it draws especially on the theory of the social contract proposed by Hobbes. It depicts a Russian town as a symbol of the state of nature as envisioned by Hobbes and describes the reasons why the social contract has not been made. According to Hobbes’s theory, in the state of nature concepts like justice and injustice do not convey any meaning; therefore, this paper investigates other: theological and anthropological concepts, to explore the meaning of Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan.

Keywords:  Leviathan, Hobbes, Legendre, Agamben, crisis, ritual, religion, law

Language: English

Published: Number 1(26)/2021, s. 62-75.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2021.1.62

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Between Justice and Mercy: Comparison of American and Russian Versions of 12 Angry Men

Dr Paweł Jabłoński

University of Wrocław

Abstract: The aim of the article is to thematize two different types of attitudes to the law – which, referring to works by Marek Jan Siemek and Lon Luvois Fuller, I call the “Eastern attitude” and the “Western attitude”. This task is realized by a comparative interpretation of two famous films: 12 Angry Men, directed by Sidney Lumet, and Nikita Mikhalkov’s Russian-language remake of Lumet’s movie, titled 12. I try to show that although these two films tell similar stories, there are significant differences between them in regard to the perception of the law. In the American version, the law is a system of mechanisms that really work and are taken seriously. In the Russian version, the law is, to a large extent, only an appearance, which in reality must be replaced by ethics.

Keywords: law, respect for law, ethics, “West”, “East”, justice, mercy

Language: Polish

Published: Number 1(26)/2021, s. 45-61.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2021.1.45

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Number of downloads: 632

Lawyers’ Role Models on the Example of ‘Monkey Trial’ in Stanley Kramer’s Film ‘Inherit the Wind’

Prof. UG dr hab. Tomasz Widłak

University of Gdańsk

Abstract: The article analyses the film Inherit the Wind, directed by Stanley Kramer in 1960, according to a screenplay inspired by events of the so-called Scopes monkey trial, which took place in 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee (US). The filmmakers recreated fairly freely the motive of the controversial ‘trial of the century’, offering the viewers an allegory of political events of the 1950s instead of historical accuracy. At the same time, it was a universal essay on the consequences of institutionalization of ideological and religious fundamentalism. The timeless appeal of Kramer’s motion picture can also be seen in the context of his positive commitment to legal ethics. The plot of the film is a clash of legal professionals, whose personalities are similar to two outstanding lawyers who actually participated in the monkey trial: William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow. Kramer’s film presents a positive role model of a lawyer, that is, defence counsel Drummond, contrasting him with the antihero: a lawyer and politician supporting the prosecution, called Brady. The film personalities of Drummond and Brady are reconstructed from the point of view of virtue ethics, using exemplarist moral theory by Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski, which enables giving a fuller picture of the created personages than in case of a deontic assessment of the moral validity of their individual acts.

Keywords: exemplarism, virtue ethics, legal ethics, virtue jurisprudence, monkey trial

Language: Polish

Published: Number 1(26)/2021, s. 33-44.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2021.1.33

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Number of downloads: 550

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