No. 2 (2023): 2/2023
Essays

Bad lawyers? Philosophical Legal Ethics in Hollywood’s film culture

Andrea Romeo
Università “Magna Græcia” di Catanzaro

Published 2023-12-05

Keywords

  • cinema,
  • law and literature,
  • legal ethics,
  • legal drama,
  • lawyers

Abstract

There are several reasons for addressing the relationship between cinema and lawyers. First, film culture provides us with a meaningful litmus test for understanding the public’s general perception of the practice of law; moreover, movies somehow influence this perception, shaping it or at least driving it in a much more incisive way than one might expect. The article aims to provide a critical map of Hollywood’s legal film production, attempting to highlight the reasons that might justify different ways of portraying lawyers in different periods, and thus linking such an analysis to the various conceptions of law and legal ethics that we usually encounter in academic and social contexts.

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