Both law and popular culture pervade our lives. Popular culture constructs our perceptions of law and changes the way that players in the legal system behave. Now in its second edition, Law and Popular Culture: A Course Book explores the interface between two subjects of enormous importance to everyone - law and popular culture. Each chapter takes a particular legally themed film or television show, such as Philadelphia, Dead Man Walking, or Law and Order, treating it as both a cultural text and a legal text. The new edition has been updated with new photos and includes greater emphasis on television than in the first edition because there are so many DVDs of older TV shows now available. Law and Popular Culture is written in an accessible and engaging style, without theoretical jargon, and can serve as a basic text for undergraduates or graduate courses and be taught by anyone who enjoys pop culture and is interested in law. An instructor's manual is available on request from the publisher and author.

Contents: Introduction to Law and Popular Culture - The Adversary System and the Trial Genre. Assigned Film: Anatomy of a Murder (1959) - Lawyers as Heroes. Assigned Film: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) - Lawyers as Villains. Assigned Film: The Verdict (1982) - The Life of Lawyers. Assigned Film: Counsellor at Law (1933) - Legal Education. Assigned Film: The Paper Chase (1973) - Law on Television. Assigned Material: Boston Legal, Season 1, disk 1 (episodes 1-4) - The Criminal Justice System. Assigned Television Show: Law & Order (Season 5, episodes 1-4) - The Jury. Assigned Film: 12 Angry Men (1957) - Military Justice. Assigned Film: A Few Good Men (1992) - The Death Penalty. Assigned Film: Dead Man Walking (1996) - The Civil Justice System. Assigned Film: A Civil Action (1998) - Civil Rights. Assigned Film: Philadelphia (1993) - Family Law. Assigned Film: Kramer vs. Kramer (1979).