Stories about law abound in our culture. We watch courtroom dramas, police procedurals, and documentaries exposing the inner workings of the justice system on TV. We read true crime books and listen to podcasts, and avidly follow blow-by-blow accounts of the trials of Oscar Pistorius or Elizabeth Holmes. The lure of law stories is enduring – though the stories we tell change from place to place and time to time. Law stories are more than entertainment – they are often overtly political; think of the way law featured in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe series (2020), or Peter Wildeblood’s Against the Law, a memoir of his imprisonment for homosexual acts in the 1950s.
On the Law Stories module you will study works of popular fiction and non-fiction like these in order to explore the following questions:
Students get a say in choosing the works we study, which will form the basis of their coursework essays. These are supported by personalized feedback and a preparatory workshop. All are welcome – no experience or expert knowledge needed.