Table Of ContentLaw in the Domains of Culture
TheAmherst Series in Law,Jurisprudence, and SocialThought
Eachworkincluded inTheAmherstSeriesinLaw,Jurisprudence,
and SocialThought explores a themecrucialto anunderstandingof
law as itconfrontsthe changingsocialand intellectualcurrents ofthe
late twentiethcentury.
The FateofLaw, editedbyAustinSaratandThomasR. Keams
Law's Violence, editedbyAustinSaratand Thomas R. Keams
Law in Everyday Life,editedbyAustinSaratandThomasR. Keams
The RhetoricofLaw, editedbyAustinSaratand ThomasR. Keams
Identities, Politics, and Rights, editedbyAustinSaratand
Thomas R. Keams
Legal Rights: Historical andPhilosophical Perspectives, editedby
AustinSaratand Thomas R. Keams
Justice and Iniustice in Lawand Legal Theory, editedbyAustinSarat
and ThomasR. Keams
Lawin the Domains ofCulture, editedbyAustinSaratand
Thomas R. Kearns
Cultural Pluralism, Identity Politics, and the Law, editedby
AustinSaratand Thomas R. Keams
History, Mem:ory, and the Law, editedbyAustinSaratand
ThomasR. Keams
Law in the Domains
of Culture
Edited by
AUSTIN SARAT
and
THOMAS R. KEARNS
AnnArbor
'THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PREss
Firstpaperbackedition2000
Copyright©bytheUniversityofMichigan1998
Allrightsreserved
PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericaby
TheUniversityofMichiganPress
ManufacturedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
@Printedonacid-freepaper
2003 2002 2001 2000 543 2
Nopartofthis:publicationmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,or
transmittedinanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,orotherwise,
withoutthewrittenpermissionofthepublisher.
AelPcatalogrecordfor this bookisavailablefrom theBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Lawinthedomainsofculture / editedbyAustinSaratandThomasR.
Keams.
p. cm.·-(Amherstseriesinlaw,jurisprudence,andsocial
thought)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBND-472-10862-X(cloth: acid-freepaper)
1.Cultureandlaw. 2.Popularculture. 3.Massmedia.
I.Sarat,Austin. II.Keams, ThomasR. III.Series.
I<487·c8L394 1997
340'.115-dc21 97-21205
CIP
ISBN0-472-087°1-0(pbk. :alk.paper)
ISBN13 978-0-472-08701-3 (paperback)
ISBN13 978-0-472-02363-9 (electronic)
Acknowledgments
Theconceptionofthisbookemergedaspartoftheintellectualventure
that we share with our colleagues Lawrence Douglas and Martha
Umphrey.Wearegratefultothem.WearealsogratefultoAmherstCol
legefortheslIpportthathasbeenshownforoureffortstodeveloplegal
studyintheliberalarts.
Contents
TheCulturalLivesofLaw 1
Austin SaratandThomas R. Kearns
ContingentArticulations:ACriticalCulturalStudies
ofLa'w 21
RosenlaryJ. Coombe
TheCullturalWorkofCopyright: Legislating
AuthorshipinBritain, 1837-1842 65
Martha Woodmansee
Lawand.theOrderofPopularCulture 97
CarolJ. Clover
CinemaScopes: Evolution,Media,andtheLaw 121
Marjorie Garber
ClintEastwoodand Equity: PopularCulture's
TheoryofRevenge 161
William Ian Miller
CompollentsofCulturalJustice 203
AndrewRoss
Contriblltors 229
Index 231
The Cultural Lives of Law
Austin Sarat and Thomas R. Kearns
Theconceptofcultureistroublinglyvagueand,atthesametime,hotly
contested, and law's relation to culture is as complex, varied, and dis
putedastheconceptitself.Againstthisbackground,LawintheDomains
ofCulturebringstheinsights and approaches ofculturalstudies tolaw
and tries to secure for law a place in cultural analysis.1 This book is,
however, neither a comprehensive overview of the ways law shapes
cultureand cultureshapes lawnora historyofthe role ofideas oflaw
and culture in promoting particular political projects. Instead it pro
videsasamplingofsignificanttheoreticalissuesintheculturalanalysis
of law and illustrates some ofthose issues in provocative examples of
that genre. Law in the Domains ofCulture is designed as an encourage
ment in the still tentative efforts to forge a new interdisciplinary syn
thesis,aculturalstudiesoflaw.2
To talkaboutcultureis,inthefirst instance, toventureintoa field
wheretherearealmostasmanydefinitionsofthetermastherearedis
cussions ofit,3 and where inside as well as outside the academy argu-
1. Forgeneralexamplesoroverviewsofculturalstudies, seeRaymondWilliams,
TheSociologyofCulture(NewYork:SchockenBooks,1981).AlsoFredInglis,CulturalStud
ies (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1993) and Lawrence Grossberg et al., eds., Cultural
Studies(NewYork:Routledge,1992).
2.SuchasynthesisisdescribedbySteveRedhead,UnpopularCultures: The Birthof
LawandPopularCulture(Manchester:ManchesterUniversityPress,1995).
3.Whileweacknowledgethedifficultyofdiscipliningtheconceptofculture,wedo
notagreewiththosewhobelieveittobeanalyticallyuseless.Exemplifyingsuchclaims
arethefollowing: "Like'ideology'(towhich,asaconcept,itiscloselyallied)'culture'is
atermthatisrepeatedlyusedwithoutmeaningmuchofanythingatall,avaguegesture
towardadimlyperceivedethos...."StephenGreenblatt,"Culture,"inCriticalTermsfor
Literary Study, ed. FrankLentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1990), 225. Or, as Mary Douglas has said about the conceptofculture,
"[N]everwassuchafluffynotionatlarge...sincesingingangelsblewtheplanetsacross
Description:The concept of culture is troublingly vague and, at the same time, hotly contested, and law's relations to culture are as complex, varied and disputed as the concept of culture itself. The concept of the traditional, unified, reified, civilizing idea of culture has come under attack. The growth of c
