"Sherwin, a law professor and former New York prosecutor, offers a interdisciplinary study of law and popular culture. He argues that in the welter of communication technologies, an unrestrained marketplace, and postmodern ideas, law is increasingly becoming a spectacle, mimicking the style, techniques, and visual logic of advertising and public relations. How will law continue to function when truth becomes interpretation and reality and fiction can no longer be separated? To answer this question, Sherwin draws on a wealth of material: the contemporary storytelling strategies of lawyers; notoriously popular criminal cases in American legal history; representations of the law such as Errol Morris's The Thin Blue Line; and examples of how lawyers and judges have used the media to legitimize the judicial process."--BOOK JACKET.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Introduction: Law in the Age of Images 2. Screening Reality: The Vanishing Line between Law and Popular Culture 3. Legal Storytelling: Culture's Tools for Making Meaning 4. The Law of Desire: Cultural History and the Notorious Case 5. The Postmodern Challenge: A Case Study

6. The Jurisprudence of Appearances: Law as Commodity 7. When Law Goes Pop: Strange Forces, Trauma, and Catharsis 8. Law's Need for Enchantment: Perils and Possibilities 9. Conclusion: Redrawing the Line between Belief and Suspicion.