Chapter 8 - ‘Best Closer Beyond Rules’ Between Legal Drama and Contemporary Public Ethics in Suits: Pop Culture Theory vs. Legal Culture?

Summary

The Comparatist ‘Traveler’ and Suits: Introductory Reflections on Method and Content

The idea of pushing the gaze beyond the traditional boundaries of comparative law to try to understand the scope and implications of the ‘representation of legal traditions in pop culture’ has a specific, twofold meaning: it is not only a demonstration of the importance, for the jurist, of tapping into the ‘marketplace of ideas’ referred to in the historical lesson of the Canadian Supreme Court, as well as its implications for the method in and of comparative law. It is, above all, the avant-garde inversion of the role of the contemporary comparatist: who is, or must be, par excellence, a real ‘traveller of the theory and practice of the legal universe’. And furthermore, not only of the legal universe, but of everything that, in terms of interdisciplinarity, can serve as a ‘shortcut to understanding the world’. Thus, also ‘beyond law’.

‘Life is like this’ (in the scene, the main character indicates one level with his hand); ‘I like it like this’ (indicating a much higher level). ‘I don't have dreams, I have goals’. These cult phrases delineate the thread of the interaction between pop culture and legal culture. For their scenic-argumentative power, some other expressions will be used to qualify the eclecticism and ambition of the protagonist of the New York lawyer Harvey Specter, thus capturing the same interaction in terms of method and law in action. What influence does pop culture have today, and how much does it contribute to the understanding of a legal system and of profession practicing in that area? How much does the televised representation of the cultural identity of this profession influence public opinion? What is the impact of pop culture on the global practice of professional law? Which practices – or expressions – of behaviour reproduced in the legal drama contribute – do or do not contribute – to a more realistic understanding of the role of the lawyer as the nexus of the network of actors operating in the legal field? To what extent does Specter's murderous, edgy and ruthless attitude represent the ideal of professional acuity and success, and to what extent do his relationships (with clients and with his associate Mike Ross – young and enterprising, but whose professional profile is based on a lie) reveal the need for a scientific study of the dichotomy between legal culture and pop culture?