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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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: 620