Borders and Boundaries: Locating the Law in Film
| Date | 01 March 2001 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6478.00185 |
| Author | Guy Osborn |
| Published date | 01 March 2001 |
JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY
VOLUME 28, NUMBER 1, MARCH 2001
ISSN: 0263-323X, pp. 164–75
Borders and Boundaries: Locating the Law in Film
Guy Osborn*
The essay examines the emergence of law and film in the curricula of
law schools in the context of Britain. It outlines the development of
legal education in England and Wales and the relationship between
legal education and training. It notes the broadening out of the
syllabus to encompass more politicized courses taught within their
socio-economic context like family law and labour law. From this shift
of academic focus the politically contextual has extended to the
cultural context. The relationship between law and culture both in
literature and in other areas has been the end result of this relaxation
of focus on professional education. Finally, the precise nature of law
and film and its boundaries are discussed.
Breadth of knowledge, wider culture, adaptability, perseverance if not
determination (often fostered by great personal suffering), an ability to
look at the law – in Roscoe Pound’s words ‘from without’ as well as ‘from
within’ – all great comparatists had these attributes to a lesser or greater
extent. That is true of those who worked in England as well as of those
who operated in the United States; and is also true of the autochthonous
giants like Harry Lawson and Jack Dawson. But are we likely to find such
features in the next generation? Natural optimism apart, I must admit, that
prima facie the signs are not propitious’.
1
It is undoubtedly the case that law and film is something of a rarity on law
school curricula,
2
and that research in the field has been somewhat
piecemeal in the past. There are a number of reasons for this. In terms of
undergraduate law teaching, it is trite to note that the curriculum is to a large
degree predicated on the requirements of the Law Society and Bar Council.
164
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*School of Law, University of Westminster, 4 Little Titchfield Street, London
W1P 7FW, England
1 B. Markesinis, ‘The Comparatist (or a plea for a broader legal education)’ in Pressing
Problems in the Law. What are Law Schools For?, ed. P. Birks (1996).
2 A module, Film and Law, was validated at the University of Westminster as part of
the LLB validation in 1993. This module was inspired, to a degree by a short course
run out of the Extra-Mural Department of Birkbeck College in the early 1990s, and
since the Westminster module there have been developments at UNL and New
College Oxford amongst others.
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