FILM AND THE LAW Cavendish Publishing Limited London • Sydney FILM AND THE LAW Steve Greenfield, LLB, MSc University of Westminster Guy Osborn, BA, LLM, Barrister University of Westminster and Peter Robson, LLB, PhD University of Strathclyde Cavendish Publishing Limited London • Sydney First published in Great Britain 2001 by Cavendish Publishing Limited, The Glass House, Wharton Street, London WC1X 9PX, United Kingdom Telephone: +44 (0)20 7278 8000 Facsimile: +44 (0)20 7278 8080 Email:
[email protected] Website: www.cavendishpublishing.com © Greenfield, S, Osborn, G and Robson, P 2001 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the terms of the Copyrights Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE, UK, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Greenfield, Steve 1960– Film and the law 1 Trials in motion pictures 2 Lawyers in motion pictures 3 Sociological jurisprudence I Title II Osborn, Guy 1966– III Robson, Peter, 1947– 791.4'3655 ISBN 1 85941 639 X Printed and bound in Great Britain ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Following Academy Award Practice, this acknowledgment page could go on for a long time and bring us to tears. However, in the light of recent awards for the shortest acceptance speeches, we will try to be brief; those we have missed out, apologies, feel free to bring this to our attention so we can add a ‘list of people who we forgot last time around’ to the second edition. Thanks are first due to our respective academic departments for allowing us space to develop these issues. Whilst film and law was (initially at least) viewed with horror by some, amusement by others, hopefully this book goes some way to placate those suspicious minds. The material in this book is the culmination of around eight years of research and teaching. The book has benefited from the opportunities to present the work in a number of academic settings including: a series of Socio-Legal Studies Associations Conferences (Leeds and Southampton) and Law and Society Annual Meetings (Arizona, Aspen, Glasgow, Chicago), Screen Conference (Glasgow) 1996, and a number of guest lectures at the Universities of Sheffield, Manchester Metropolitan and Anglia. Early incarnations of some of the ideas presented here were first aired in a number of academic journals, and thanks are due to the editors of these journals for the foresight and perception to publish such work. Thanks are due to all our respective families for putting up with constant viewings of videos and DVDs, often accompanied by an over-use of the pause button and no popcorn. Thanks also to the students who have contributed to the way in which the work has evolved through their participation in seminars and lectures over the years. Particular thanks are due to Vincent McGrath for initial impetus and to Martin Knowles for the very generous use of his extensive DVD collection and his critical comments on the postmodern construction of the women characters. Thanks also to Leslie and Henry for hosting the regular Sunday evening film circle in The Ram. We are grateful to Lara Brain and Avis Whyte for their help locating research sources, and all at Cavendish Publishing, especially Jo Reddy and Cara Annett, for their patience, help and humour during this project. A particular mention must be made of the anonymous reader who provided us