recommend a law-related book/tv show/movie Forum

[darkgreenfruit]

LEGALLY BLONDE.

[megaTTTron]

make a poll so we can vote on the best law movie!

[JakeL]

If anyone has not read Ford County Stories by John Grisham, there are a few lawyer stories in there that are pretty damn good.

[NZA]

The Wire

Any other answers to this question are simply wrong.

+1

+2

[anthropologieaddict]

I enjoyed The Nine...lots of light stories about the Justices. I am reading the classic "An Intro to Legal Reasoning" by Edward Levi and enjoying it. Dry, but very short and dense material.

[2011Law]

It depends on if you want mindless entertainment or intellectually gratifying entertainment, i spose....
Read The Brother's Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky- will change your life/perspective/attitude toward law & life.
For legal philosophy..HLA Hart's Concept of Law is pretty bomb, easy to read and captures the dominant philosophy held by most lawyers and judges whether they realize it or not (opinion obviously)
Read a natural law philosopher if you want to balance that out though...

just looked it up, the brothers karamazov sounds pretty good, might give it a read since I got nuthin better to do for 8 months. also, if anyone is interested in philosophy of law, I'd get a textbook. used "philosophy of law" by feinberg and coleman for an undergraduate class, it has a good selection (as far as I can tell), with the main thinkers from all fields. about half of the book is made up of court cases, mainly from scotus.

[pereira6]

The Wire

Any other answers to this question are simply wrong.

+1

+2

+3

[3ThrowAway99]

The Wire

Any other answers to this question are simply wrong.

Haven't seen it so I'll have to check it out, but to say that your conclusion is overly broad/ strong is perhaps unnecessary.

[Adjudicator]

I loved Boston Legal; it wasn't supposed to be an accurate portrayal of a law firm, but it was very entertaining. James Spader was brilliant.

[KeepitKind]

if u don't keep up on Bob Loblaw's Law Blog u'll fall behind the curve

[KeepitKind]

also I second The Brothers Karamazov - my fav book of all-time (all-time!)

[Bildungsroman]

I thought the Hardy Boys series was a fascinating insight into criminal law.

[2011Law]

if u don't keep up on Bob Loblaw's Law Blog u'll fall behind the curve

true that

[theghostofDrewTate]

If you're looking for a great legal novel, the discussion begins and ends with Bleak House, the greatest legal novel ever written. It's also so old that it's long off copyright so the price is right.

[pereira6]

I thought the Hardy Boys series was a fascinating insight into criminal law.

[tlslsnlsp]

awesome guys, keep em coming

[johnnyutah]

[sudoku]

Robert Whitlow's The Trial was pretty good, kinda recent, can find it in the Redbox. A little sad, but the idealism will inspire.


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1264115/

[ahduth]

also I second The Brothers Karamazov - my fav book of all-time (all-time!)

Yeah I almost wrote my Penn essay about this lol. Really makes me wish I knew Russian.

[3ThrowAway99]

The Wire

Any other answers to this question are simply wrong.

False
The Fountainhead; includes legal and trial aspects

I'm honestly sympathetic, but no. The Wire is the only piece of legal entertainment I have ever heard a professor recommend, and that has happened multiple times. The have a class based on the show at Chicago this year. There are no comparisons.

I already responded once that this was an overly strong conclusion (obviously) re: the Wire being the only credited response. I also mentioned that I would check it out and I did. Now I am even less impressed with Rand's answer. It seems like a high quality show and I am kind of getting into it, but I think the show still takes lots of liberties re: how policing and court process actually works, although I will say for the most part the courtroom scenes seem pretty realistic. I've spent a lot of time sitting in courtrooms for a previous job, including providing testimony and talking with judges, so I do have some basis of comparison. I disagree that there is no basis of comparing other dramatic renderings of lawyering or court process (actually the Wire is mostly about detective work, not lawyering, from what I have seen so far).

Just because there is a class on the show does not prove that it is the most significant or accurate dramatic rendering of the legal process. It is one among many, albeit perhaps a fairly good one (though if you ask a bunch of Baltimore detectives how accurate some of the stuff in season 1 is [all that I have seen so far] I think you would find that its not nearly as common as the show represents for cops to be assaulting suspects where not assaulted first and that they would also point out other dramatic liberties). Anyway, I suppose overconfidence such as above can be a form of baiting (whether or not it was intended this way), but I am glad that I was introduced to a new show.

[Eugenie Danglars]

Great suggestions! Tagged for winter break.

[ahduth]

Oh, has anyone mentioned The Trial by Kafka yet? That one was kind of obvious I guess lol.

[KeepitKind]

The Trial is so on point with all the disorienting and haunting minutiae of our modern bureaucratic legal system that I would almost prefer i hadn't read it... at least not how it all ends!

[johnnyutah]

If no one's said it yet, Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe should be on the list.

[fletchcon]

How has nobody mentioned Judge Judy yet?
Remember.... The people are real. The cases are real. The rulings are final
How much more accuracy do you need?

Seriously though Witness for the Prosecution is great (don't read a synopsis of the story before watching it though!)
Also Hitchcock's The Wrong Man is very good and based on a true story