Law and Film: Critical Reflections on a Field in Motion

10.30-12.00 Book Launch

Room J211 (Sciences Po, 13 rue de l’Université, Paris 7ème)

This event features a panel discussion delving into the central themes of the book Law and Film: Critical Reflections on a Field in Motion (Routledge, 2025), and the main ideas behind it. The book launch offers insights into selected chapters and presents diverse scholarly perspectives on the ways legal concepts, narratives, and cinematic storytelling intersect.

Featuring:

• Séverine Dusollier (Sciences Po), Camil Ungureanu (Pompeu Fabra), Elie Aslanoff (Sciences Po) as the authors
• Edward van Daalen (McGill), Alexia Katsiginis (Sciences Po), Vittoria Becci (Sciences Po) as the editors

14.00-16.00 Workshop

Room Goguel (Sciences Po, 56 rue des Saints-Pères, Paris 7ème)

We invite all who are interested in exploring the intersection of cinema and legal scholarship to join us in sharing and developing ideas on how to build upon our book, Law and Film: Critical Reflections on a Field in Motion (Routledge, 2025) and the seminar series "Eating Popcorn Like a Lawyer", to create a vibrant and inclusive academic community in the field.

Topics will include: law and film in legal education, establishing an international research group, organizing a law and film conference, and launching a law and film journal.

The workshop is open to all but registration is required. A more detailed schedule will be shared with registered participants in advance.

16.30-19.00 Film Screening

Room Goguel (Sciences Po, 56 rue des Saints-Pères, Paris 7ème)

This law-and-film day concludes with an “Eating Popcorn Like a Lawyer” evening screening of one of Werner Herzog’s documentary: Into the Abyss (2011).

Werner Herzog’s Into the Abyss (2011) is a documentary that examines the intersection of law and cinema through the lens of capital punishment in the United States. Focused on a Texas triple homicide case involving Michael Perry and Jason Burkett, the film serves as both a legal case study and a cinematic meditation on justice, morality, and the human cost of crime. Through interviews with perpetrators, victims' families, and law enforcement, Herzog constructs a narrative that questions the ethical foundation of the death penalty while employing his signature filmmaking style—blending raw human stories with existential inquiry.