This chapter seeks to trace the ludology of law. It traces the 'gameplay' of law through the lens... more This chapter seeks to trace the ludology of law. It traces the 'gameplay' of law through the lens of a video game which reduces legal practice to a gamified, virtual space - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Ace Attorney frames the operation of law around the process of cross-examination and the cataloguing of evidence, with the “game” of law played by selecting which exact line of testimony contradicts the catalogued evidentiary exhibits. While on its face this seems like a narrative game based around dialogue selection, the means through which the player engages with this virtual legality – the avatar as advocate and the non-playable character (NPC) of the witness – presents this trial of the player-attorney as a re-rendering of the legal trial. In attempting to simplify and gamify the trial process, Ace Attorney exposes the “play” at the heart of law and the dehumanising, meta-textuality which sustains it. This turn towards the power of play, and its affordances as a way of thinking about law, provides both a means of returning towards a style of legal formalism and an exposition of the fictions which allow us – as lawyers, as citizens, as players in the game of law – to place trust and faith in the trial.
From Savage to Sensational, from lawyer to hulking beast, from advocate to Avenger and from indep... more From Savage to Sensational, from lawyer to hulking beast, from advocate to Avenger and from independent woman to hyper-sexualised feminista -She-Hulk provides a case study in what occurs when 'great power' meets the 'great responsibility' of the legal professional. This article seeks to fill a gap in the fledgling field of Law and Comics via an analysis of She-Hulk, revealing a character defined by binaries, constructed through real world and imagined patriarchal forces, whose superpowers do not make her immune from the struggles faced by the female voice within the legal system. Yet She-Hulk offers a solution to this exclusionthe realm of the abject, the monstrous, splintering the law to protect her client's interests. She-Hulk reveals that superhero powers are needed to overcome the challenges of feminist lawyering.
The intersections of law and contemporary culture are vital for comprehending the meaning and sig... more The intersections of law and contemporary culture are vital for comprehending the meaning and significance of law in today’s world. Far from being unsophisticated mass entertainment, comics and graphic fiction both imbue our contemporary culture, and are themselves imbued, with the concerns of law and justice. Accordingly, and spanning a wide variety of approaches and topics from an international array of contributors, Graphic Justice draws comics and graphic fiction into the range of critical resources available to the academic study of law. The first book to do this, Graphic Justice broadens our understanding of law and justice as part of our human world—a world that is inhabited not simply by legal concepts and institutions alone, but also by narratives, stories, fantasies, images, and other cultural articulations of human meaning. Engaging with key legal issues (including copyright, education, legal ethics, biomedical regulation, and legal personhood) and exploring critical issu...
From Savage to Sensational, from lawyer to hulking beast, from advocate to Avenger and from indep... more From Savage to Sensational, from lawyer to hulking beast, from advocate to Avenger and from independent woman to hyper-sexualised feminista – She-Hulk provides a case study in what occurs when ‘great power’ meets the ‘great responsibility’ of the legal professional. This article seeks to fill a gap in the fledgling field of Law and Comics via an analysis of She-Hulk, revealing a character defined by binaries, constructed through real world and imagined patriarchal forces, whose superpowers do not make her immune from the struggles faced by the female voice within the legal system. Yet She-Hulk offers a solution to this exclusion – the realm of the abject, the monstrous, splintering the law to protect her client’s interests. She-Hulk reveals that superhero powers are needed to overcome the challenges of feminist lawyering.
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