As stated in the syllabus, this class has one writing project. The project requires you to select one film from the list below. You are to discuss the film you have selected for this project along several class-related topics. These issues include but are not necessarily limited to
civil law, criminal law, common law, the adversarial system, federal courts, state courts, specialty courts, courts of limited jurisdiction, courts of general jurisdiction, appellate courts, prosecution, defense, judges, judicial selection processes, legal ethics, interest group impact, media impact, the criminal trial process, the civil trial process, jury selection, instructions, and verdict.
Please note that all of the listed issues are directly related to material from the text. Keep in mind that not all films will have all of these court-related issues and some will include issues not listed here. The narrative of your project will include:
- Provide a brief but complete summary of the film so that someone who hasn't seen it can understand the story line
- Make sure to identify the title of the film and year of production. The year of the film may play a major role in that it will be important to know what the law was at that time. Make sure that you interpret the film in its proper context.
- Describe the central characters and the key contributions each made to the film.
- Identify the court-related issues in the film (See issues identified above as an example).
- What court-related issues were central to the story? What court-related issues were "in the background" of the story?
- What parts of the film were portrayed realistically? What parts were contrary to what we know about court-related issues?