Galperin on Museum of Joy @JoshGalperin @HaubLawatPace @ELIORG

Joshua Galperin, Pace University School of Law, is publishing Museum of Joy, in a volume to be published by the Environmental Law Institute (2025). Here is the abstract.

This document is a work of short fiction, which will appear in an edited volume of scholarship on the subject "consumption and the good life in the Anthropocene." (I assume it is the only work of fiction in the volume. Thanks to the editors for agreeing to allow me to submit something like this!) Although this piece is still in draft format, after the "global tech outage" on July 18, 2024, I thought it would be wise to make the piece available before reality fully became stranger than my fiction. "Holy cow, it's a scorcher" lilted the announcer, trailing off with a chortle. You could hear the smile running from ear to ear and it was hard not to smile along thinking about kids playing in sprinklers, parents sitting under rainbow umbrellas, wiping the sweat from their brows, and the droplets of cool water running down a glass of iced tea. “This is too sad.” Frances grabbed the remote and switched off the TV. The image of Jason Alexander as George Costanza with ice cream smeared across his face blinked away. “Why are they so playful about the heat?” She breathed out a sigh and closed her eyes for a moment. “It's threatening.” Bruce groaned, subtly but distinctly. “The guy sounds happy about how hot it is! Is it a joke about melting ice cream? All I can think about are people crouching in little slivers of shade, and kids dead after a brownout. "Fine. We can dump this episode” Bruce conceded “There are plenty more.”

Download the story from SSRN at the link.

Bezemek on Game of Thrones: An Essay in Politics Theory--The Men of the "Night's Watch" @UniGraz

Christoph Bezemek, University of Graz, Faculty of Law, Institute of Public Law and Political Science, has published Game of Thrones: An Essay in Political Theory - The Men of the 'Night's Watch'. Here is the abstract.

In 2019 I started to work on a small volume on the popular TV franchise 'Game of Thrones' from a political theory perspective; convinced that the show’s plot means not only to expose oneself to the thrills of a sex- and violence-laden fantasy adventure. Watching ‘Game of Thrones’, I thought, requires to do more than simply love or hate the protagonists as they fail or succeed in fighting, scheming and plotting their way to the ‘Iron Throne’. It requires to make political judgments about the agents and their actions. Thus: why not use the characters of the show, the challenges they face, the institutions that determine their fate and the social and legal norms that govern their conduct as a background for an essay in political theory? Save for one chapter, alas, the book has never been written. This chapter (originally intended to be the sixth) focuses on the 'Night's Watch'.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Repost: Through a Glass Darkly: European History and Politics in Contemporary Crime Narratives: Proposals Due By May 31, 2020

Deadline Approaching: Proposals Due By May 31, 2020

Through a Glass Darkly: 

European History and Politics in Contemporary Crime Narratives

Monica Dall’Asta, Jacques Migozzi, Federico Pagello, Andrew Pepper eds.

To talk about the crime genre—as opposed to detective or spy or noir fiction—is to recognise the comprehensiveness of a category that speaks to and contains multiple sub-genres and forms (Ascari, 2007). In this volume, we want to uncover the ways in which the crime genre, in all of its multiple guises, forms and media/transmedia developments, has investigated and interrogated the concealed histories and political underpinnings of national and supranational societies and institutions in Europe, particularly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

  

Two most popular expression of the crime genre, the detective novel and the spy novel, have long been identified as ‘sociological’ in their orientation (Boltanski, 2012). These forms often tackle enigmas or uncover conspiracies that are concealed by and within states, asking searching questions about the failures of democracy and the national and international criminal justice systems to deliver just societies. Similarly, following the example of U.S. hard-boiled fiction, the ‘noir’ variant of the genre has also established itself as a ‘literature of crisis’ (according to Jean-Patrick Manchette’s formula), where the shredding of official truths and of ‘reality’ itself ends up revealing dark political motives that elicit an even starker set of ethical and affective interrogations (Neveu, 2004). While the obvious links between the ‘noir’ and the ‘hard-boiled’ traditions of crime fiction (e.g. between Manchette and Hammett) suggest an American-French or trans-Atlantic connection, we are keen to stress that the sociological and political orientation of the European crime genre—especially since 1989 and the corresponding opening up of national borders and markets—requires examining both global/glocal and multi-national (and state-bound) issues and challenges. It is here that the European dimension of the proposed volume is best articulated because, to do justice to this context, we need to pay attention not just to discreet national traditions, but the ways in which contemporary iterations of the genre interrogate the workings of policing, law, criminality and justice across borders and nations (Pepper and Schmid, 2016).

The transnational framework of the DETECt project (Detecting Transcultural Identities in Popular European Crime Narratives) is necessarily and acutely concerned with civic and ethical issues linked to the construction of new European new identities. The proposed volume aims to explore the ways in which these new identities are formulated and thematised in European crime novels, films or TV series, particularly in relation to the interrogations raised by the uncovering of hidden aspects of both the historical past and the contemporary political landscapes. Contributions are encouraged which look at particular case studies or identify larger national and/or transnational trends or synthesise the relationship between individual texts and these larger trends. It is envisaged that the volume will be organised into the three sections outlined below. Prospective contributors are invited to identify where their articles might sit within this structure as well as to outline the particular focus adopted by their essay in relation to the general topic. The list of topics in each section is to be regarded as indicative rather than exhaustive. 

1. Crime Narratives and the History of Europe

European crime narratives from the last thirty years have frequently referred to collective traumas and conflicts that have torn European societies apart throughout the 20th century. Contributions are invited that look at the ways in which these fictional works have restaged and critically reinterpreted some of the most tragic pages in European recent history, including (but not limited to) the following iterations of violent rupture and social breakdown:

- The Civil War and Francoist dictatorship in Spanish crime narratives (e.g. Montalbán, La isla minima);

- Fascism, surveillance and the police-state (e.g. Lucarelli, Gori, De Giovanni) and the role of oppositional memory (e.g. Morchio, Dazieri) in Italian detective fiction; 

- Fascistic/right-wing nationalist movements in interwar Scandinavia (e.g. Larsson, Mankell);

- The Third Reich as the historical biotope of crime fiction (e.g. Kerr, Gilbers);

- The constant presence of wars as a breeding ground for crime in French crime novels: World War I and II, collaboration, the Algerian War, colonisation, post-colonisation (e.g. Daeninckx, Férey);

- The heavy presence of Cold War images and axiology in spy novels and films, including those appeared after the fall of the Berlin Wall, both in Western and Eastern Europe (e.g. Kondor, Furst);

- The ‘Troubles’ in Irish and British crime fiction (e.g. Peace, McNamee).

2. Crime Narratives and the Present of Europe

Our present time is characterized by a number of social, political, financial/economic crises that threaten the construction of a cosmopolitan pan-European identity in line with the EU’s founding ideals. Crime narratives attempt to offer realistic representations of such contemporary crises by putting in place a number of ‘chronotopes’ that symbolise social divisions and peripheral and marginalized identities. We encourage essays that examine the ways in which post-1989 European crime narratives have represented the emergence of nationalisms, xenophobia, racism and other threats to the social cohesiveness of European democracies. We also invite contributions that use the trope of the crisis to explore how the links between crime, business and politics have polluted or corrupted the democratic imperatives of European social democracies and institutions from the outset. Topics might include:  

- The Kosovo War, and more broadly the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s, as the first signs of a generalised geopolitical chaos (e.g. in French noir novels);

- The financial crisis of 2008 and its devastating consequences for individuals, communities and whole societies (e.g. Bruen and French in Ireland; Markaris in Greece; Dahl in Sweden; Lemaître in France);

- The migrant crisis (within and outside the EU) and the emergence of new anxieties about belonging and/or otherness (e.g. Mankell, Dolan, Rankin);

- Climate change, pollution, and environmental destruction (e.g. Tuomainen, Pulixi);

- The blurring of crime and capitalism and the depiction of crime as a form of social protest vis-à-vis the effects of global capitalism and neoliberal deregulation and privatisation (e.g. Manotti, Carlotto, Heinichen, the TV series Bron);

- Inquiries into the effects of contemporary forms of patriarchy, gendered violence and misogyny and their links to other forms of oppression and domination (e.g. Lemaître, Slimani, Macintosh, Gimenez-Bartlett Larsson, McDermid).

3. Crime Narratives and the Future of Europe 

European crime narratives explore a broad range of social and cultural identities across different scales: from the more stable identities attached to local contexts through the new mobile, precarious and mutating identities fostered by the dynamics of globalization. This section will look into how these different identities and their complex interplay can suggest ways to frame the future of Europe. Contributions could address how crime narratives try to make sense of the complex, if yet perhaps contradictory, set of representations circulating across different European public spaces and collective imaginaries. On the one hand, we might ask whether something like a European crime genre even actually exists, given that these works typically demonstrate suspicions about ‘outsiders’ and only rarely offer positive representations of post-national transcultural identities. On the other hand, however, the genre does give us glimpses into what might be achieved through cross-border policing initiatives, organised under or by Interpol and Europol, in the face of organised crime gangs involved in transnational smuggling and trafficking networking. Contributions to this final section are encouraged to reflect upon how crime narratives produced by and in between the discreet nation-states frame the hopes and limits of European cohesiveness and the continent’s future or futures. Essays could focus on one or more of the following topics:

- The interplay between local, regional, national and transnational identities as represented through specific narrative tropes, such as in particular the local police station, the interrogation room, the frontier or border, and so on;

- The connection between social deprivation at the local end of the geopolitical scale and different global systems and networks at the other end;

- The role of borders, cities, violence, rebellion, policing and surveillance in producing new identities and subjectivities not wholly anchored in discreet nation-states. Attention could also be given to formal innovations insofar as these allow or enable the expression of new identities;

- The hope and consolation offered by the resilient community or village (Broadchurch, Shetland) or the extended family (Markaris’s Kostas Charistos series) in the face of the messy, brutal contingencies of a world ruled by criminal and business elites; 

- Social banditry as a form of contestation directed against social inequalities produced by capitalism (Carlotto’s Alligator series; La casa de papel). 

If you are interested in submitting a proposal to be considered for inclusion in this volume, please send an abstract of no more than 300 words and a short biography to info@detect-project.eu by May 31, 2020. We would encourage you to identify the section of the proposed volume where your essay would be best situated. We are looking to commission up to 14 essays in total of 7000 words each including footnotes and bibliographic references.

For Those Interested in Law and Game of Thrones: A Blog For You! @ShannonKilpatri @WesterosLaw

Via Shannon Kilpatrick: news of a blog devoted to law and Game of Thrones:  Laws of Fire and Ice. The author is attorney Clint Woods.  And there's a Twitter Feed!

Want To Review a New Law-Related Film, TV Series, Or Book? Hedgehogs and Foxes Wants To See Your Work!

The online site Hedgehogs and Foxes (https://hedgehogsandfoxes.org/) is seeking essays, book reviews, articles, teaching materials, and original works (including works of fiction, poetry, and other materials related to law and the humanities. Would you like to review a law related film or television series, such as For the People, Proven Innocent, Goliath, Bosch, Les Miserables, The Red Line, or Sneaky Pete? What about a law-related novel or non-fiction book? Let one of the Board of Editors know of your interest.

A New Book On Law in Games of Thrones @Mare_et_Martin

New from Mare & Martin:

Du droit dans Game of Thrones (Quentin Le Pluard and Péran Plouhinec, eds., 2019). Here is the description of the book's contents from the publisher's website.

La série Game of Thrones et la saga littéraire du Trône de Fer dont elle est tirée connaissent un retentissement mondial. Au sein de cet univers de fiction dépeignant une société médiévale brutale, cruelle, intégrant quelques éléments fantastiques tels les dragons, on ne compte plus les meurtres, viols, incestes, tortures et autres actions blâmables, à tel point que le droit et la justice ysemblent absents. C’est pourtant tout l’inverse. Il existe un droit propre au monde de Game of Thrones. Un individu ressuscité par magie, par exemple, demeure-t-il une personne au regard du droit et conserve-t-il les liens juridiques qu’il avait pu nouer avant sa mort ? Un mur de glace de plusieurs dizaines de mètres de haut constituet-il une frontière au sens juridique du terme ? De même, de quel droit est-il question à l’égard des personnages féminins présentés dans la série ? C’est à toutes ces interrogations, et à bien d’autres mêlant toutes les disciplines juridiques, que les auteurs apportent des réponses en convoquant leur connaissance de la fiction et du droit. Cet ouvrage entend démontrer que l’étude de l’un peut s’enrichir des apports de l’autre. Se voulant accessible à tous – néophytes du droit comme de Game of Thrones, ou naturellement juristes confirmés comme fans inconditionnels de la saga –, il s’agit là d’une autre preuve que, comme le veut l’adage, le droit est véritablement partout. Il l’est donc aussi dans Game of Thrones.

Michaels on Abstract Innovation, Virtual Ideas, and Artificial Legal Thought @UHLAW

Andrew C. Michaels, University of Houston Law Center, is publishing Abstract Innovation, Virtual Ideas, and Artificial Legal Thought in volume 14 of the Maryland Journal of Business & Technology Law. Here is the abstract.

In a culture of tech-triumphalism, it is often assumed that advances in technology are "making the world a better place," though in reality technology can have both positive and negative effects. This article explores how technology could change the way we think (or don't think) about law, and whether such changes would be beneficial. Part I uses the novel Ready Player One to consider how virtual reality technology might distract people from reality. Considering a hypothetical patent on a virtual reality idea from the novel, Part II discusses the evolving law of patentable subject matter and abstract ideas. Part III considers predictions that legal thought of the type done in the previous part will become automated, and then considers some potential drawbacks of replacing human legal thought with artificial legal thought. The article concludes by questioning whether anyone will be thinking about law in the future, and whether it matters.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

CFP: Islands and Remoteness in Geography, Law, and Fiction: Conference at the University of Verona, November 21-22, 2019

From the mailbox:

CFP:  Islands and Remoteness in Geography, Law, and Fiction, a conference convened by Matteo Nicolini, University of Verona, Law Department, and Thomas Perrin, UFR de Géographie et d’Aménagement, Université de Lille. The conference will take place at the University of Verona November 21-22, 2019.

The conference seeks to explore how, in many ways, islands appear to be “geographical
paradoxes”. Indeed, they are spatially remote places, which are, at the same time, bound to a continent by social conventions. The grounds of such puzzle are manifold. It is firstly a matter of spatial area. Secondly, the puzzle depends on how political power projects authority over circumscribed spatial realms, including non-continental realms. In so doing, authority forges the concepts of remoteness and bounds.

Proposals for papers are due by May 31, 2019 and should be sent to matteo.nicolini@univr.it and thomas.perrin@univ-lille.fr. Please also direct questions about the conference to them. They will make acceptances known by June 24, 2019.

The selected papers will be published in Pólemos – Journal of Law,
Literature and Culture,volume 14 (2020) Issue 2. The deadline for first draft papers submission is due by 15 January 2020.

For more information, see the link here. 

Hidalgo on Due Process in Harry Potter @EmilyABishop2

Jessica Victoria Hidalgo, Loyola (NOLA) Law School, has published “Accio Due Process!” Solving the Due Process Crisis in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them at Loyola (New Orleans) Law Review Online, published May 16, 2018.

Mignanelli on John Grisham's Appearances in Judicial Opinions @nmignanelli

Nicholas Mignanelli, University of Miami School of Law, is publishing The Runaway Judge: John Grisham's Appearance in Judicial Opinions in volume 48 of the University of Memphis Law Review (2018). Here is the abstract.

Each year, countless scholars publish articles in law reviews across the country hoping to have some impact on the way courts interpret and apply the law. To have one’s labors approvingly cited or discussed by a court is one of the highest compliments a legal scholar can receive. Thus, it is the height of irony that judicial opinions have discussed or alluded to the works of novelist John Grisham — an attorney who has never authored a law review article — over two dozen times. This study begins with an explanation of methodology and an annotated bibliography of the results. Next, the author discusses the various ways that courts have used Grisham’s works, categorizing each case according to its function. The author concludes with further speculation about why judges are drawn to Grisham’s novels.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Thornton and Roberts on Women Judges, Private Lives: (In)Visibilities in Fact and Fiction @ANU_Law @hj_roberts_ @GenderANU

Margaret Thornton and Heather Roberts, both of the Australian National University College of Law, have published Women Judges, Private Lives: (In)Visibilities in Fact and Fiction at 40 University of New South Wales Law Journal 761 (2017). Here is the abstract.

Once unseen, women are now visible in increasing proportions on the bench in common law courts, although this reality has generally not percolated into fictional worlds, where ‘the judge’ is invariably male. Fiona, cast by Ian McEwan as the protagonist, in The Children Act, is a notable exception. In the novel, McEwan directs our gaze beyond the traditional separation of judicial identity into public/private (visible/invisible) facets of life and raises questions regarding the impact of life on law, and law on life. This article draws on McEwan’s work to illuminate a study of how judicial swearing-in ceremonies tell the stories of Australian women judges. At first glance, this may seem an unusual pairing: The Children Act is an international best-selling work of fiction whereas the official records of court ceremonial sittings are a somewhat obscure body of work largely overlooked by scholars. However, the speeches made in welcome in open court on these occasions by members of the legal profession and by the new judge in reply, offer glimpses of the attributes of women judges not discernible in formal judgments. These ‘minor jurisprudences’ challenge the familiar gendered stereotypes found in the sovereign body of law.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Bilbo Baggins, Defendant: Law In Tolkien @MizzouLaw

HATTS (Historical and Theatrical Trial Society) of the University of Missouri School of Law has announced the trial of Bilbo Baggins of Bags End, The Shire, for stealing the Arkenstone of Thrain. The trial will take place on Wednesday, April 4, in the Law School's Courtroom.

Law in J. R. R. Tolkien's saga Lord of the Rings (LOTR) is an interesting subject. Below are some cites (including blogposts) that discuss the question.

Omar Ha-Redeye and Jacob Kaufman, Lord of the Rings as Property Law, Law Is Cool

Charles Lincoln, IV, The Silmarillion and the Lord of the Rings as a Lens Into Constitutional Interpretation: A Possible Synthesis of Natural and Positive Law

Graham McAleer, Tolkien's Establishment, Law and Liberty

Michael Martinez, A Discussion of Law in Middle-Earth

Christina Sterbenz, 6 Laws From Lord of the Rings (Business Insider)

J. R. R. Tolkien, Law and Customs Among the Eldar, from Morgoth's Ring (1993).

Jonathan A. Watson, Tolkien, Aquinas, and the Law.  Another link:



Then of course there's

Edward Castronova, The Renaissance of Natural Law: Tolkien, Fantasy, and Video Games

Brent Lang, Warner Brothers, Tolkien Estate Settle Massive "Lord of the Rings" Lawsuit, Variety 

Kathryn Rubino, Court Investigates Whether Being Compared To Gollum Is Insulting, Above the Law


Oh, and

Elie Mystal, Departure Memo From Middle Earth Burns the Bridge of Khazad-Dum, Above the Law


Follow the Precious.

Burke on Why Novelists Write About the Criminal Justice System @alafairburke @Hofstra_Law

Alafair S. Burke, Hofstra University School of Law, is publishing Why Fiction? in the New England Law Review (2017). Here is the abstract.

When I sold my first novel the summer after my first year as a tenure-track law professor, I assured the dean of my law school that fiction was a hobby, completely separate from my academic work, no different than if a colleague were training for a marathon in her spare time. Fifteen years later, this symposium asks its participants - four of us published novelists, one of us a judge, all of us trained lawyers - to reflect on the depiction of the criminal justice system in fiction. Our contributions make clear that the promise I made to my dean was itself a type of fiction. Whether an author realizes it or not, it is impossible to create an interesting, albeit fictional, depiction of the criminal justice system without having something to say about its real-world counterpart. Successful legal fiction uses the legal system as a defining component of the narrative that feels entirely realistic, even if the plot that unfolds there is wholly fictional. To be of interest, a novel’s legal setting must serve a purpose. Legal detail should advance the development of character, plot, or atmosphere. Separate from the question of why a novelist might write about law is the question of why a legal professor might choose to write fiction. This symposium presses me to respond to that query. Fortunately, the five thoughtful and diverse essays contributed to this collection have helped clarify a decade and a half of my own thoughts. I appreciate the opportunity to comment on three themes that I hope I have developed at least as well through fiction as through traditional legal scholarship: (1) individual actors in the criminal justice system matter; (2) legal rules are only a starting point; and (3) justice is not inevitable. Comparing these three points to narrative, one could say that they provide lessons about character, structure, and surprise endings.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Why So Many Mystery and Horror Plots Grow Up--and Out--of Small Towns

Emily Farrelly offers five reasons that small towns are such wonderful settings for mystery and horror: 1) the illusion of closeness (everyone knows everyone else--yikes) 2) slow investigative response (the cops, who know everyone, also know nothing about solving crimes) 3) isolation (everyone knows everyone else's secrets--more yikes) 4) the stakes are much higher (everyone knows you really well--okay, the yikes are really piling up now) and 5) the town is a character of its own (it dominates the people who live in it--okay, the yikes are out of sight).

More here.

Simenon and Justice: A New Book By Alexandra Fabbri and Christian Guéry @BellesLettresEd

A new book on Georges Simenon and law, available from Les Belles Lettres. The authors are judges Alexandra Fabbri and Christian Guéry, and the book is Simenon et la Justice, in the series Bibliothèque Simenon.

The book includes chapters on various parties in the French judicial system and analysis of whether Maigret, Simenon's famous police officer, is simply an officer of the law, investigating crimes, or engages in judging his suspects' actions as well.

Here is a link to an interview with author Alexandra Fabbri, discussing the book.  Both the book and the interview are in French.

First Thing We Do, Let's Kill All the Deans @chronicle

Ms. Mentor, channelled through Emily Toth, Professor of English and Women's Studies at LSU, offers her annual-ish list of academic list of novels for summer reading here for the Chronicle of Higher Education. This year, the theme is nasty deans. I wouldn't have thought there were all that many to choose from. I am so naive.

Alfred Alcorn, Murder in the Museum of Man (1997).

Saul Bellow, The Dean’s December (1982).

Willa Cather, The Professor’s House (1925).

David Fleming, It’s All Academic (2000).

John Gardner, Mickelsson’s Ghosts (1982).

Jean Hanff Korelitz, The Devil and Webster (2017).

Bernard Malamud, A New Life (1961).

Bourne Morris, The Red Queen’s Run (2014).

Cathy Perkins, The Professor (2012).

Joanne Rendell, The Professors’ Wives’ Club (2008).

Kim A. Smith, The Cora Crane School of Journalism: a Novel of Academic Shenanigans (2016). 

To the list I suggest looking at film and tv deans: check out the Dean Bitterman trope in TV Tropes.  See also the Perry Mason episode The Case of the Decadent Dean (s7, ep. 5).

From my own wonderful dean, Tom Galligan, (definitely not a candidate for literary extermination and who provided the title for this post: "Out, out, damned deans!"

Marmor on Law as Authoritative Fiction

Andrei Marmor, Cornell University Law School, has published Law as Authoritative Fiction as Cornell Legal Studies Research Paper No. 17-10. Here is the abstract.

Law, like fiction, is one of those domains in which the saying so makes it so. The main purpose of this essay is to show how various aspects of law and fiction are closely related, and how they exhibit features that are generally shared by expressive artifacts. Both law and fiction belong to a type of intangible artifacts, created by communicative means, giving rise to closed prefixed contexts in which truths in that context are constituted by performative speech acts. The law, however, is very much unlike fiction in that it is essentially authoritative. I conclude by showing how law’s spacio-temporal aspect, which it does not share with most other expressive artifacts, derives from its authoritative nature.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Greene on Atticus Finch's Nature Revealed in "Go Set a Watchman"

Sally Greene is publishing Atticus, Uprising in volume 47 of the Cumberland Law Review (Winter 2016). Here is the abstract.

The controversial publication of Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman, in 2015, allows us to see Atticus Finch from a new angle. He is revealed to be a "gentleman bigot," not unlike many white southern men of the mid-twentieth century. As interesting a revelation is the shock with which his daughter, Jean Louise ("Scout"), receives this news. Why didn't you tell me this is how it was? she asks him. Her disillusionment, which perhaps mirrors Lee's own, finds parallels in the lives of other white southerners, like the writers Willie Morris and Elizabeth Spencer, who only in retrospect realized the depth of the racist society in which they were raised. For Morris and Spencer, and for countless others, the necessary response was self-exile. The publication of Go Set a Watchman comes as an unexpected gift, an admonishment: a reminder to white readers that even today, we are often blind to the racism that is right before our eyes.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Lizzie Borden's Back...With a Vengeance

The Guardian takes a look at the enduring interest with Lizzie Borden and the events of August 4, 1892, as new popular culture entries, including a film, a novel, and a musical focus on the enigmatic Massachusetts woman who may have been the U.S.'s ultimate daddy's girl. More here.

Loathsome Lawyers From Literature: A List From Attorney/Author Alex Wade @SurfNation1

Alex Wade's list of unpalatable literary lawyers: from Dr. Gonzo (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) to Don Sebastiano (The Day of Judgment).

Alex Wade is a writer who also practices media law (Carter-Ruck). His latest book is Flack's Last Shift (Blue Mark Books, 2016).