'Law and Justice on the Small Screen' is a wide-ranging collection of essays about law in and on television. In light of the book's innovative taxonomy of the field and its international reach, it will make a novel contribution to the scholarly literature about law and popular culture. Television shows from France, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and the United States are discussed. The essays are organised into three sections: (1) methodological questions regarding the analysis of law and popular culture on television; (2) a focus on genre studies within television programming (including a subsection on reality television), and (3) content analysis of individual television shows with attention to big-picture jurisprudential questions of law's efficacy and the promise of justice. The book's content is organised to make it appropriate for undergraduate and graduate classes in the following areas: media studies, law and culture, socio-legal studies, comparative law, jurisprudence, the law of lawyering, alternative dispute resolution and criminal law. Individual chapters have been contributed by, among others: Taunya Banks, Paul Bergman, Lief Carter, Christine Corcos, Rebecca Johnson, Stefan Machura, Nancy Marder, Michael McCann, Kimberlianne Podlas and Susan Ross, with an Introduction by Peter Robson and Jessica Silbey.
Introduction
Peter Robson and Jessica Silbey
Part I: Method/Context
1. Measuring Humanity: Rights in the 24th Century
Lief H Carter and Michael McCann
2. Television, Pleasure and the Empire of Force: Interrogating Law and Affect in Deadwood
Rebecca Johnson
3. Making 'Bad Apples' on The Bridge: A Production Study of the Making of a Police Drama
Anita Lam
4. Testing Television: Studying and Understanding the Impact of Television's Depictions of Law and Justice
Kimberlianne Podlas
5. Let's See How Far We've Come: The Role of Empirical Methodology in Exploring Television Audiences
Cassandra Sharp
Part II: Genre Studies
A. The Evolved Law TV Genres
6. Dark Justice: Women Legal Actors on Basic Cable
Taunya Lovell Banks
7. A Third Rapist? Television Portrayals of Rape Evidence Rules
Paul Bergman
8. Prosecutors and Psychics on the Air: Does a 'Psychic Detective Effect' Exist?
Christine A Corcos
9. Lawyers in Terrorism Thrillers
Tung Yin
B. Reality Law TV
10. Til Debt Do Us Part: Reality TV and the Financial Literacy Regulatory Project
Freya Kodar
11. Judging Reality Television Judges
Nancy S Marder
12. Television Judges in Germany
Stefan Machura
13. Judge Judy: Constructions of 'Justice with an Attitude'
Marilyn Terzic
14. Reality TV and the Entrapment of Predators
Mark Tunick
Part III: Specific Shows
15. Bordering on Identity: How English Canadian Television Differentiates American and Canadian Styles of Justice
Ummni Khan
16. Television Divorce in Post-Franco Spain: Anillos de oro (Wedding Rings)
Anja Louis
17. 'McNutty' on the Small Screen: Improvised Legality and the Irish-American Cop in HBO's The Wire
Sara Ramshaw
18. Torture and Contempt of the Law in '24': Selling America New 'Patriotic' Values
Ryan J Thomas and Susan Dente Ross
19. Decoding the Dark Passenger: The Serial Killer as a Force for Justice. Adapting Jeff Lindsay's Dexter for the Small Screen
Angus Nurse
20. Canada: ADR and The Associates
Jennifer L Schulz
21. Stranger Danger?: Sadistic Serial Killers on the Small Screen
Annette Houlihan
