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Fictional Judges and Lawyers in Contemporary North American And The Anthropomorphization of Law: Fictional Judges and Lawyers in Contemporary North American and European Settings by Stephanie Chieh-Ying Chong A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Centre for Comparative Literature University of Toronto © Copyright by Stephanie Chieh-Ying Chong (2009) The Anthropomorphization of Law: Fictional Judges and Lawyers in Contemporary North American and European Settings Stephanie C. Chong Doctor of Philosophy Centre for Comparative Literature University of Toronto 2009 Abstract This dissertation examines the varying roles of lawyers and judges in Canada, the United States, England, France and Germany in a selection of “fictional legal narratives”: novels, movies, television shows and plays that explore legal themes. The study focuses on contemporary works after 1960, and explores the North American fascination with lawyers that saturates the major levels of culture, from the popular (including television shows, movies and novels) to the academic. Fictional images of lawyers and judges not only reflect but arguably also influence our attitudes toward the legal system, and offer a concrete way of conceptualizing abstract legal concepts. However, the vast differences between the Anglo-American adversarial legal system and the continental European inquisitorial legal system spawn very different fictional portraits of lawyers and judges. The differences between fictional legal narratives produced by each country, even those with similarly structured legal systems, are also striking. Chapter One begins by outlining a number of factors that contribute to the proliferation of fictional legal narratives in some countries, and their relative scarcity in other countries. Next, Chapter Two traces the wide range of lawyer images in American ii fictional legal narratives, which both glamourize and demonize the figure of the lawyer. Turning to anthropomorphizations of law in the United Kingdom, Chapter Three examines the British tendency to perpetuate the idea that, if correctly executed, the fundamental principles of British law would lead to a just and harmonious society. Chapter Four then explores the “anxiety of influence” reflected in Canadian images of law, which are more “soft-boiled” than the fictional legal figures of other countries. Moving to French fictional legal narratives, Chapter Five contemplates the predominance of the juge d’instruction figure and the prevalence of the investigatory mode. The dissertation then discusses the relative scarcity of fictional legal narratives in Germany, and the cynicism in existing German stories about law in Chapter Six. The study concludes by considering the future directions of the law and culture movement, as well as both the challenges and rewards of this interdisciplinary work. iii Table of Contents Introduction – Exploring the Many Figures of Law…..……………….……………….…1 Chapter One – The Poet-Legislator and the Concept of Law…..……………….………...8 Chapter Two – Glamorization and Demonization: The Extreme Anthropomorphizations of American Law………………………………………………………………...39 Chapter Three – The Rule of Law and the “Golden Thread”: The Reverential Anthropomorphizations of British Law……………………………………….…89 Chapter Four – The “Anxiety of Influence”: The “Soft-boiled” Anthropomorphizations of Canadian Law…………………………………………………………………..142 Chapter Five – Far from the “Spectacle of the Scaffold”: The Predominance of Investigation in Anthropomorphizations of French Law……………………….180 Chapter Six – “Wicked Christians” and Incompetent Advocates: The Cynical Anthropomorphizations of German Law……………………………………….225 Conclusion – The Challenge of the “Universal Intellectual”…………………………...266 Works Consulted………………………………………………………………………..273 iv Acknowledgments First, to my supervisor, Linda Hutcheon, thank you for your guidance, your patience and your belief in me during the course of my doctoral studies, and in the years before as well. Your genuine compassion for your students and your unflagging dedication to the profession of teaching has been an inspiration. Without you, this work would never have come to fruition. To my doctoral committee: Grieg Henderson, Mayo Moran and Andreas Motsch, thank you for the expertise in your individual areas that you have so graciously and generously offered. Your willingness to stretch beyond ordinary disciplinary boundaries in order to support this endeavour will always be appreciated. To my parents, Garyen and Pat, and my sister, Johanna, thank you for your lifelong encouragement of learning, and your steadfast backing of all of my academic endeavours. Last, but by no means least, to my partner, Ed Mills, thanks for your love, your companionship, and your enduring sense of humour throughout this process. Ontario Graduate Scholarships, University of Toronto Fellowships, and SGS Travel and Thesis Completion Grants generously funded the research and writing of this dissertation. v 1 Introduction Exploring the Many Figures of Law Why are North Americans so obsessed with lawyers? And why are popular cultural phenomena like legal thrillers and prime time legal dramas ubiquitous in North America while they rarely exist in continental Europe? The North American fascination with lawyers saturates the major levels of culture, from the popular (including television shows, movies and novels) to the academic. Images of lawyers sometimes reach funhouse-mirror distortions, but a grain of truth may lie at the heart of even the most grotesque caricature. Law is a “reflection of the human condition” (Brooks 15), and while literary interest in the legal is not a new trend, it is a burgeoning one. Fictional images of lawyers and judges not only reflect but arguably also influence our attitudes toward the legal system, and offer a concrete way of conceptualizing abstract legal concepts. Scholars have struggled to pinpoint the exact reason for the popularity of the lawyer and, in some cases, the judge figure. But the reasons are many, and vary within different national contexts. Images of lawyers and judges vary greatly from country to country. The lawyer is sometimes glamorous, sometimes demonized, and sometimes a projection of modern-day malaise. The judge is sometimes heroic to the point of martyrdom, and sometimes callous to the point of indecency. Further, portraits of lawyers in continental European culture contrast greatly with their American counterparts. Concepts of ‘lawyer,’ ‘judge,’ ‘court,’ and indeed ‘law’ are highly culturally defined, but the differences underlying these labels often go unexamined. As the global economy continues to open, and as satellite television and international 2 marketing make cultural products available to other countries, understanding these differences is crucial if we are truly committed to facilitating cross-cultural communication. The vast differences between the Anglo-American adversarial legal system and the continental European inquisitorial legal system spawn very different fictional portraits of lawyers and judges. However, the differences between fictional legal narratives produced by each country, even those with similarly structured legal systems, are also striking. This dissertation examines the varying roles of lawyers and judges in the United States, the UK, Canada France and Germany in a selection of “fictional legal narratives”:1 novels, movies, television shows and plays that explore legal themes.2 The study focuses on contemporary works after 1960, although in some limited cases, I discuss works slightly prior to 1960 that have had a continuing impact on contemporary representations and the understanding of legal figures. While at first the scope of this project seems overwhelming, in reality, the United States is the only country that produces large volumes of fictional legal narratives. Further, casting a wide net is necessary because the dominant genres representing legal figures also vary across cultures (e.g., while fictional lawyers enjoy popularity in the American legal thriller novel, fictional juges d’instruction feature frequently in French television and film). The broad scope of this study allows me to track representations in each culture without limitation to a single genre, and thus facilitates a broader understanding of how each culture anthropomorphizes law (i.e., articulates a concept through human figures). 1 I use the term “fictional legal narratives” throughout. The term “legal narratives” also implies non-fiction narratives, and can be extended to include judicial decisions, which fall outside the scope of this study. 2 Many of these works have been adapted from one form to another, the most common form of adaptation being from novel to film. In most instances, I discuss both forms of the narrative together, noting differences where relevant. 3 Scholarly interest in the relationship between law and literature has given birth to an entire area of study. It began in the United States as “a relatively new field of inquiry, with a small but growing literature” in the mid-1980s (Friedman 1587). Slowly but surely, the movement has amassed a considerable body of scholarship in that country. Spearheaded by the Americans, two decades after its conception, the movement has outgrown its original name, “law and literature,” and is now alternately labeled with the broader titles of “law and humanities,” “critical cultural studies of law” or “law and culture.”3 Outside the United States, theoretical work in this field is still in its infancy. This is
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