Movie Guide for Legal Studies
Kent Kauffman

ISBN-10: 0132197626
ISBN-13: 9780132197625

Publisher: Prentice Hall
Copyright: 2007
Format: Paper; 96 pp
Published: 09/27/2006

Suggested retail price: $14.20
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Appropriate for classes in Legal Studies

 

Movie Guide for Legal Studies is intended to help instructors incorporate one or more of the 33 films featured in this guide into class material and dialogue. 

 

 

Presents Key Themes and Best Classroom Use - for each of the 33 films featured

  • Allowing the professor to decided what is best suited for a particular class

Provides a summary of the plot and suggestions of classes - for which one of the listed films might fit

  • A professor can choose wether they want to incorporate a particular film into lecture. 

Key scene and discussion suggestion portions - at the end of each summary

  • The professor can provide students with suffient narrative and, rather then play a movie  in its entirety, show one or more key scenes, incorpating those scenes in class material and dialogue.

 

12 Angry Men

Key Themes: jury deliberations, reasonable doubt, prejudice versus fairness

Best Classroom Use: Criminal Law, Introduction to Paralegal Studies

 

The Accused

Key Themes: sexual assault and justice, plea bargaining, guilt by encouragement

Best Classroom Use: Criminal Law, Interviewing

 

Anatomy of a Murder

Key Themes: insanity defense, questional legal strategies, domestic violence

Best Classroom Use: Criminal Law, Legal Ethics, Intreviewing

 

And Justice for All

Key Themes: corruption in the legal system, injustice, judicial misbehavior, ethical dilemmas

Best Classroom Use: Introduction to Paralegal Studies, Criminal Procedure, Legal Ethics

 

Animal Farm

Key Themes: justice, freedom, goverment control, equality

Best Classroom Use: Constitutional Law, Introduction to Law

 

Body Heat

Key Themes: honesty, ethics, legal malpractice

Best Classroom Use: Wills and Trusts, Property

 

Changing Lanes

Key Themes: fraud and deceit in the practice of law, revenge

Best Classroom Use: Legal Ethics, Estates and Trusts

 

A Civil Action

Key Themes: litigation strategies and injustice, discovery tactics, hardball negotiation

Best Classroom Use: Civil Procedure, Litigation, Torts, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Legal Ethics

 

Class Action

Key Themes: litigation and legal ethics, product liability, law firm politics, father/daughter lawyers

Best Classroom Use: Introduction to Paralegal Studies, Litigation, Torts, Legal Ethics

 

The Client

Key Themes: honesty in litigation, attorney-client confidentiality

Best Classroom Use: Criminal Procedure, Legal Ethics, Introduction to Paralegal Studies

 

Criminal Law

Key Themes: miscarriage of justice, ayyorney-client confidentiality, vigilantism

Best Classroom Use: Criminal Law, Legal Ethics, Interviewing

 

Disclosure

Key Themes: sexual harassmemt, mediation

Best Classroom Use: Employment Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution

 

Erin Brockovich

Key Themes: Toxic Waste litigation, paralegal efforts, corporate fraud, overcoming personal and legal odds

Best Classroom Use: Introduction to Paralegal Studies, Litigation, Torts, Legal Ethics

 

A Few Good Men

Key Themes: military justice, the defense of superior orders, courtroom strategies

Best Classroom Use: Criminal Law, Introduction to Paralegal Studies

 

The Firm

Key Themes: corrupt lawyers, blackmail, racketeering, overbilling

Best Classroom Use: Legal Ethics, Criminal Law, Introduction to Paralegal Studies

 

Jagged Edge

Key Themes: murder trial, ethics violations, lawyer-client involvement

Best Classroom Use: Criminal Law, Legal Ethics, Litigation

 

Liar Liar

Key Themes: lawyer dishonesty, law office politics, martial property distribution

Best Classroom Use: Introduction to Paralegal Studies, Legal Ethics, Family Law, Contracts

 

The Life of David Gale

Key Themes: the death penalty, miscarriage of justice, ends justifying the means

Best Classroom Use: Criminal Law, Introduction to Law

 

Minority Report

Key Themes: preventative justice and actus reus, crime control and constitutional safeguards

Best Classroom Use: Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Introduction to Law

 

My Cousin Vinny

Key Themes: fish out of water in the criminal justice system, wrongful accusation, mistaken identity, culture clashes

Best Classroom Use: Criminal Procedure, Criminal Law, Legal Ethics, Interviewing

 

Philadelphia

Key Themes: wrongful termination, illegal discrimination, AIDS and the legal system

Best Classroom Use: Civil Procedure, Torts, Emplotment Law, Introduction to Paralegal Studies

 

Presume Innocent

Key Themes: murder prosecution, litigation strategies, political maneuvering, revenge

Best Classroom Use: Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Evidence

 

Primal Fear

Key Themes: insanity defense, honesty in litigation, corruption in the Catholic Church and in government

Best Classroom Use: Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Legal Ethics

 

The Rainmaker

Key Themes: insurance company and wrongful death litigation, David vs. Goliath, lawyer ethics violation

Best Classroom Use: Legal Ethics, Civil Procedure, Litigation, Introduction to Paralegal Studies

 

Runaway Jury

Key Themes: honesty in litigation, jury tampering, situational ethics

Best Classroom Use: Civil Procedure, Legal Ethics, Introduction to Paralegal Studies

 

The Star Chamber

Key Themes: justice vs. law, legal technicalities, misuse of power

Best Classroom Use: Criminal Procedure, Legal Ethics

 

A Time to Kill

Key Themes: racism and legal prejudice, vigilantism and the insanity defense, jury nullification and justice

Best Classroom Use: Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Introduction to Paralegal Studies, Legal Ethics

 

To Kill a Mockingbird

Key Themes: social injustice, racism, rape trial

Best Classroom Use: Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Introduction to Paralegal Studies, Legal Ethics

 

The Verdict

Key Themes: medical malpractice, civil litigation, David vs. Goliath, redemption

Best Classroom Use: Civil Procedure, Litigation, Torts, Legal Ethics, Introduction to Paralegal Studies

 

Wall Street

Key Themes: insider trading, business ethics, greed and redemption

Best Classroom Use: Business Law, Criminal Law, Legal Ethics, Introduction to Law

 

The War of the Roses

Key Themes: divorce and property distribution, spousal conflict

Best Classroom Use: Family Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution

 

The Winslow Boy

Key Themes: justice, litigation risks

Best Classroom Use: Interviewing, Introduction to Paralegal Studies

 

Young Mr. Lincoln

Key Themes: justice, wrongful accusation, courtroom shrewdness

Best Classroom Use: Criminal Procedure, Criminal Law, Intreviewing, Alternative Dispute Resolution

 

 

 

Kent Kauffman is the Paralegal Studies Program Chair at Ivy Tech Community College Northeast, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  He is a graduate of Temple University and the Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University, and is the author Legal Ethics, a textbook published by West Legal Studies.

This Guide is to help instructors incorporate legal-related films into classroom lectures by providing a summary of the plot and suggestions of classes for which one of the listed films might fit.  In conjunction with the key scene and discussion suggestion portions, students can be provided with sufficient narrative and rather than play a movie in its entirety, show one or more of its key scenes, incorporating those scenes into your class material and dialogue.  Beyond classroom viewing, this guide can also be used to create class projects. 

View a Sample Chapter PDF:

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    © 2007 | Prentice Hall | Electronic Book; 96 pages | Estimated Availability: 10/06/2006
    ISBN-10: 0135037751 | ISBN-13: 9780135037751
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