Academic

Theorizing the Law of People Magazine

By propertyprof

I've been criticized of late for not putting up more posts on the law of People Magazine--and also been criticized because the posts so far haven't articulated a unified theory of the law of People Magazine.  So this growing area is both under-theorized and under-developed.  Hmm--I thought it a low calorie, fun set of posts.  But, let me apply a tiny bit of mental elbow grease to this on new year's eve....

I see the series as serving a couple of purposes.  First, it's an entertaining way of dealing with material for class.  This gives students a concrete and entertaining way of relating what they're studying in class--perhaps something on foreclosure or landlord tenant law or trespass or defamation or whatever--to events they may be reading about.  But even more than helping in the law school classroom, it seems to me that a book on this material might be an effective way to talk to the interested public about complex legal topics.  So you may have a lay person who's reading about defamation or invasion of privacy and wonders "is that even legal?"  (Vicki Iseman's lawsuit against the New York Times would be a great starting place for this kind of discussion--so maybe we should call this the law of "the smoking gun."  Defamation's definitely an important issue--including questions about what's defamatory these days.)  I envision something that jumps off from an exciting fact pattern (like the foreclosure on Ed McMahon's house and then Donald Trump's purchase of the house and his re-letting it back to McMahon).  That story provides the hook for talking about the law of foreclosure and landlord tenant law.  And once we're into landlord tenant law, there's a ton of other great examples, like Prince's modification of a mansion that he rented.

What are the subjects?  Of course defamation and invasion of privacy; those are huge.  Celebrities get into all sorts of fights, so torts is huge--along with a lot on defenses to intentional torts (and the occasional intentional infliction of emotional distress).  Need for an interesting fact pattern for false imprisonment, no need to look further than the LA Airport, where a young woman who looked like a star was used as an (apparently unwilling) decoy by police.  I'm guessing that family law--divorce, child custody, pet custody--will be huge.  Of course there's a ton of stuff on intellectual property.  Hey, product names confuse consumers all the time.  Because I'm a property junkie, I suppose I'd want a lot on land sales, easements, nuisance, neighbor law.  Then, then ... there's what started it all (in my mind): trusts and estates.

Al Brophy

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on December 31, 2008 (boomark / email).