Law on Film – Details, episodes & analysis

In Conclave (2024), Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) organizes a conclave to elect a new pope. Key candidates and factions vie with one another as the process plays out until finally a new pope is elected. The film was directed by Edward Berger from a script by Peter Straughan (based on the 2016 novel by Robert Harris), and features an all-star cast including Fiennes, John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, and Isabella Rossellini. The film provides a window into the process for electing a new pope, along with the legal, historical, and political forces that have shaped it.  

Timestamps:

0.00    Introduction

2:32     The origins of the conclave

5:29    Electing a new pope

8:03    The College of Cardinals

10:23   The Apostolic Constitutions

14:46   The contentious conclave in the film

21:05   Naming a new cardinal in pectore

24:51    Leo XIV, the new pope

26:58   The Roman Curia

26:38   The nuns in the film

30:05  Symbol and ritual: the smoke from the chimney

32:17    The custom of a new pope choosing a name

36:55   Struggles over different visions of the church

40:58   How accurate was the film in capturing a conclave?

42:39   How the conclave has changed

45:04   Possible future changes to the papal selection process

Further reading:

Allen, John L. Conclave: The Politics, Personalities, and Process of the Next Papal Election (2002)

Baumgartner, Frederic J., Behind Locked Doors: A History of the Papal Elections (2003)

Harris, Robert, Conclave (2016)

Povoledo, Elisabetta, “A Papal Primer That’s Fiction, but Also Rings True,” N.Y. Times (Mar. 2, 2025)

West, Morris, L., The Shoes of the Fisherman (1963)

Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. 
For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html
You can contact him at jonathanhafetz@gmail.com
You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz 
You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm
You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

Inglourious Basterds (2009), written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, revolves around two plots to assassinate Nazi leaders during the closing years of World War II. One plot centers on a secret band of Jewish-American soldiers under the command of Ltn. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt)—the “Basterds”—who terrorize Nazis. The other involves Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent), a young Jewish woman who narrowly escapes death at the hands of notorious “Jew hunter” Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) and flees to Paris where she runs a cinema under a false identity. The plot lines converge at the Paris cinema where the Basterds and Shosanna are each separately plotting to kill Hitler and other Nazi leaders while they are attending the premiere of a German propaganda film. The film utilizes alternate history to explore themes surrounding the pursuit of justice against the perpetrators of mass atrocities and the complex relationship between law and vengeance.

Timestamps:

0:00    Introduction

2:37     Reimagining the arc of justice

8:00     Alternatives to the progress narrative

16:51     The power of violence and revenge

21:56     Counterfactuals and alternative histories

27:03     The limits of legalistic responses to atrocities

32:24     The role of cinema in Nazi Germany

39:00     Narratives of progress

44:10     Ending with a primal moment of revenge 

 Further reading:

Hussain, Nadine, “‘Inglorious Basterds’: A Satirical Criticism of WWII Cinema and the Myth of the American War Hero,” 13(2) Inquiries Journal 1 (2021)

Jackson, Robert H., Opening Statement before the International Military Tribunal, Robert H. Jackson Center (Nov. 21, 1945)

James, Caryn, “Why Inglourious Basterds is Quentin Tarantino’s Masterpiece,” BBC (Aug. 16, 2019)

Keydar, Renana, “‘Lessons in Humanity’: Re-evaluating International Criminal Law’s Narrative of Progress in the Post 9/11 Era,” 17 (2) J. Int’l Criminal Justice 229 (2019)

Kligerman, Eric. “Reels of Justice: Inglourious Basterds, The Sorrow and the Pity, and Jewish Revenge Fantasies,” in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds: A Manipulation of Metacinema (Robert Dassanowsky ed., 2012)

Tekay, Baran “Transforming Cultural Memory: ‘Inglourious Basterds’”, 48(1) Film Criticism (2024)

Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. 
For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html
You can contact him at jonathanhafetz@gmail.com
You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz 
You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm
You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

Dark Waters (2019), directed by Todd Haynes, tells the real-life story of how a lawyer, Rob Bilott (Mark Ruffalo), waged a twenty-year battle to hold the DuPont corporation accountable for contaminating a local water supply with carcinogenic chemicals that poisoned tens of thousands of people. While Bilott is ultimately able to achieve some degree of compensation and justice for the victims, the film shows the challenges of litigating against a powerful company bent on denying responsibility and covering up its misconduct.  

Timestamps:

0:00       Introduction

2:35        The origins: a small case for a family friend back home

6:24        Teflon and the “miracle” chemical

10:24      How attorney Rob Bilott uncovers the pollution

13:49      Getting the Taft firm on board

21:50      Addressing the legal challenges in the case 

24:30     Medical monitoring and causation in toxic tort cases

28:36      Divisions in the community, financial pressures, and client management

30:30     DuPont’s clout

35:14       Bellwether trials: trying the cases in court

39:44      What the litigation achieved and the continued challenges

46:27      The risks of “forever chemicals”

49:50      Developments since the film was released

55:43      Can the legal system deliver justice?

1:01:53    Some further developments

Further reading:

Bilott, Robert, Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont (Atria Books 2019)

Carucci, Rob, “Leadership Lessons from Rob Bilott’s 20 Year Battle for Justice Against DuPont,” Forbes (July 12, 2021)

Nevitt, Mark P. & Percival, Robert V., “Can Environmental Law Solve the ‘Forever Chemical’ Problem,” 57 Wake Forest L. Rev. 239 (2022)

Rich, Nathaniel, “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare,” N.Y. Times Magazine (Jan. 6, 2016)

Small, Sarah Chen, Note, “Toxic Film: Analyzing the Impact of Films Depicting Major Contamination Events on the Regulation of Toxic Chemicals,” 35 Georgetown Env. L. Rev. 561 (2023)

Tabuchi, Hiroko, “Trump Administration to Uphold Some PFAS Limits but Eliminate Others,” N.Y. Times (May 14, 2025)

Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. 
For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html
You can contact him at jonathanhafetz@gmail.com
You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz 
You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm
You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

This episode examines I Just Didn’t Do It, a 2007 Japanese film written and directed by Masayuki Suo. In the film, 26-year-old Teppei Kaneko (played by Ryo Kase) is traveling to a job interview on a packed Tokyo commuter train when a 15-year-old school girl, who was standing in front of him on the train and whom Kaneko hardly noticed, wrongly accuses him of groping (chikan). Kaneko is  arrested. He is advised by a lawyer to plead guilty and pay a small fine, after which he will be freed. But Kaneko maintains his innocence and decides to fight the case, even though he is told that nearly everyone who takes their case to trial in Japan is convicted. The film then documents Kaneko’s nightmare odyssey through the Japanese criminal justice system, where he is detained for months and ultimately convicted despite significant problems with the prosecution's case. I Just Didn’t Do It provides important insights into the Japanese criminal justice system and a critique of how it operates, including its treatment of the presumption of innocence.

Timestamps:

 0:00   Introduction

2:52     Background on the Japanese criminal justice system

5:19      The crime of groping (chikan) in Japan

8:57      The pressure to plead guilty

17:12     The interrogation of suspects

18:46    Criminal defense lawyers in Japan

22:31    Why defendants tend to testify at trial

23:52    The prosecution’s disclosure obligations

28:30    How bail operates in Japan

31:04    The rotation of judges in Japan

34:06    The incentives in favor of conviction

38:44    Finding the defendant guilty despite reasonable doubt

43:20    The lay judge (saiban) system in Japan

46:54    A critique of Japan's treatment of the presumption of innocence

Further reading:

Aronson, Bruce E. & Johnson, David T., “Comparative Reflections on the Carlos Ghosn Case and Japanese Criminal Justice,” 18 Asia-Pacific Journal 24(2) (Dec. 15, 2020)

Doi, Kanae, “Inquiry Needed into Japan’s Flawed Criminal Justice System,” Human Rights Watch (Nov. 4, 2024)

Japan Federation of Bar Associations, “The Japanese Judicial System”

Keiichi, Muraoka & Toshikuni, Murai, “Citizens on the Bench: Assessing Japan’s Lay Judge System,” Nippon.com (June 26, 2019) 

Meehan, Susan, “I Just Didn’t Do It,” The Japan Society

Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. 
For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html
You can contact him at jonathanhafetz@gmail.com
You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz 
You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm
You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

This episode looks at On the Waterfront, the celebrated 1954 American film directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. The film stars Marlon Brando as the ex-prize fighter turned New Jersey longshoreman Terry Malloy. Malloy struggles to stand up to mob-affiliated union boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) after Malloy is lured into setting up a fellow dockworker whom Friendly has murdered to prevent him from testifying before the Waterfront Crime Commission about violence and corruption at the docks. The pressure on Malloy rises as he falls in love with Edie Doyle (Eva Marie Saint), the murdered dockworker’s sister, and as Edie, along with local priest Father Pete Barry (Karl Malden), urge Malloy to do the right thing. Malloy ultimately testifies against Friendly and challenges Friendly’s leadership at great personal risk. While the film is about a courageous fight against a corrupt power structure and injustice, it is also influenced by director Elia Kazan’s own controversial decision to act as an informant against fellow directors, writers, and actors during the McCarthy-era Red Scare.

Timestamps:

0:00     Introduction

2:20      Corruption on the docks

9:18       Boxing: I could have been a contender

17:07     The priest on the waterfront

23:44    Testifying before waterfront crime commission

32:10     Informants

34:48    Elia Kazan and the House Un-American Activities Committee

47:04    The film’s relevance today

48:39    Some people who stood up to HUAC

50:40   Separating the art and the artist

Further reading:

Demeri, Michelle J., “The ‘Watchdog’ Agency: Fighting Organized Crime on the Waterfront in New York and New Jersey,” 38 New Eng. J. on Crim. & Civ. Confinement 257 (2012)

Murphy, Sean, “An Underworld Syndicate': Malcolm Johnson's ' On the Waterfront' Articles,” The Pulitzer Prizes Archive (1948)

Navasky, Victor S., Naming Names (Viking Press 1980)

Rebello, Stephen, A City Full of Hawks: On the Waterfront Seventy Years Later—Still the Great American Contender (Rowman & Littlefield 2024)

Pjevach, Julia, Note, “A Comparative Look at the Response to Organized Crime in the Ports of New York-New Jersey and Vancouver,” 6 Cardozo Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 283 (2022)

Smith, Wendy, “The Director Who Named Names,” The American Scholar (Dec. 10, 2014)

Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. 
For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html
You can contact him at jonathanhafetz@gmail.com
You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz 
You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm
You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

Muhammad Ali is widely recognized as one of the greatest athletes of all-time and one of the most important figures of the 20th century. In addition to his long and celebrated career as a boxer and three-time heavyweight champion of the world, Ali changed the conversation about race, religion, and politics in America. Ali’s refusal to be inducted into the U.S. military during the Vietnam War on religious grounds—a profound act of resistance that resulted not only in Ali’s three-plus-year exile from professional boxing, but also a criminal conviction and five year-prison sentence that Ali almost had to serve until it was reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court—represented a pivotal moment of the 1960s. Ali has been the subject of numerous books and documentary films, including the Oscar-winning When We Were Kings (1996) and The Trials of Muhammad Ali (2013). He is also the subject of the 2001 Hollywood biopic, Ali (co-written and directed by Michael Mann and starring Will Smith as Ali), which focuses on the ten-year period from Ali’s capture of the heavyweight crown from Sonny Liston in 1964 to Ali’s fight against George Foreman in Zaire in 1974 (the famed “Rumble in the Jungle”). Once a sharply polarizing figure, Ali became one of the most celebrated and eulogized individuals in America, whose rich, if not incomparable, legacy reverberates around the world today.  

Timestamps:

0:00    Introduction

2:22      Formative experiences

5:00     From Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali

10:26    Opposition to the Vietnam draft

13:16     Ali’s loss of his prime years

15:42     The broader significance of Ali’s opposition to induction 

18:08    Ali’s legal challenges and the U.S. Supreme Court

22:48:   The Fight of the Century

24:06    From a symbol of resistance to reconciliation

27:50     Becoming a global icon: The Rumble in the Jungle

35:30    Ali and Howard Cosell 

36:57    Ali and Malcolm X

41:08    Some problems of the Ali biopic

44:12     Ali’s post-boxing career

47:53    Sports and resistance: Ali's legacy      

Further reading:

Hauser, Thomas, Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times (1991)

Kindred, Dave, Sound and Fury: Two Powerful Lives, One Fateful Friendship (2006)

Lederman, Marty, “The story of Cassius Clay v. United States,” SCOTUSBlog (June 8, 2016)

Lipsyte, Robert, Free to Be Muhammad Ali (1978)

Marqusee, Mike, Redemption Song: Muhammad Ali and the Spirit of the Sixties (2017)

Remnick, David, King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero (1998)

Zirin, Dave, Muhammad Ali Handbook (2007)

Zirin, Dave, The Kaepernick Effect: Taking a Knee, Changing the World (2022)

Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. 
For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html
You can contact him at jonathanhafetz@gmail.com
You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz 
You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm
You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

Syriana is a 2005 geopolitical thriller written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, based loosely on former CIA case officer Robert Baer’s memoir, See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism. The film weaves together multiple storylines that involve a CIA agent, a U.S. energy analyst, a major transnational law firm, and an oil-rich Persian Gulf kingdom. It tackles complex themes of corruption, power, and terrorism from a distinctly post-9/11 vantage point. The film also suggests how law operates in transnational settings and how it seeks—but often fails—to tame the forces of ambition, greed, and power that drive the oil industry and America’s role in it. Joining me to talk about Syriana is Margaret (Peggy) McGuinness, a professor at St. John’s University School of Law and a leading scholar of international law. 

Timestamps: 

0:00      Introduction 

3:00      The context and setting 

5:24      The film’s multiple storylines

8:28      Former CIA agent Robert Baer and the George Clooney character 

19:22     Capital markets and energy derivatives

25:26    Big oil in the early 2000s and today 

28:28    Big law and the Jeffrey Wright character

33:43   DOJ’s investigation 

37:14     The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act 

42:40    The illusion of due diligence 

47:40    Radicalization 

53:06   Gulf monarchs 

55:10    Targeted assassinations 

1:01:14  The next movie: big tech and AI 

1:01:52  The outcome 

Further reading: 

Alyson, Brusie et al., “Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,” 61 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 713 (2024) 

Baer, Robert, See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism (Crown, 2003) 

Cohen, Kfir, “Narrating the global: pedagogy and disorientation in ‘Syriana,’” Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media 

Lewis, R. James & Awan, Akil N. eds. Radicalization: A Global and Comparative Perspective (Oxford Univ. Press, 2024) 

Stiglitz, Jospeh E., Globalization and Its Discontents (W. W. Norton & Co. 2002) 

Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. 
For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html
You can contact him at jonathanhafetz@gmail.com
You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz 
You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm
You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

The Goldman Case (Le Procès Goldman) (2023), is a French courtroom drama based on the real-life 1976 trial of Pierre Goldman, a far-left Jewish militant who was accused of multiple armed robberies and four murders during a holdup of a pharmacy in Paris. The film, which was directed by Cedric Kahn from screenplay by Kahn and Nathalie Hertzberg, stars Arieh Worthalter as Goldman and Arthur Harari as his lead lawyer, Georges Kiejiman. The film is not only a gripping account of this celebrated trial, but also explores larger themes around individual and collective responsibility, the way courtrooms can become the battleground for contested narratives about the past, and the swirling forces of race, class, and religion in 1970s France. Joining me to talk about The Goldman Case is Fred Davis, an internationally acclaimed trial attorney, expert on French criminal law and procedure, and Lecturer at Columbia Law School, where he teaches about how to examine comparative criminal procedure through film.

Timestamps:
0:00     Introduction
2:34      Background for the Pierre Goldman case
5:15       Goldman’s lawyers, Georges Kiejiman and Francis Chouraqui
7:48      Breaking down a French courtroom
9:21       The lawyer for the victims
10:20    Procedural differences between French and American trials
14:47     A window into 1970s France
17:33     The backdrop of the treatment of Jews in Vichy France
23:05    How the Left rallied to Goldman’s side
27:10     Tensions around race and policing in France
29:58    The role of the investigating magistrate in France   
32:22    The verdict and aftermath
38:55    French courtroom dramas
40:42    Evolving discussion about France’s history during World War II
43:40   Studying comparative criminal justice through film

Further reading:

Goldman, Pierre, Dim Memories of a Polish Jew Born in France (1977)

Oltermann, Philip, “Tried for double murder and adored by the French left: the violent life and crimes of Pierre Goldman,” The Guardian (Sept. 16, 2024)

Paxton, Robert O., Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944 (1972)

Marrus, Michael, R. & Paxton, Robert O., Vichy France and the Jews (1981)

Reid, Donald, “From Souvenirs obscurs to Lieu de mémorie,” French Politics,
Culture & Society, vol. 26, no. 2 (Summer 2008)

Vincendeau, Ginette, “The Goldman Case: arresting courtroom drama holds its own outside a French context,” Sight and Sound (Sept. 20, 2024)

Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. 
For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html
You can contact him at jonathanhafetz@gmail.com
You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz 
You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm
You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

Mr. Untouchable, a 2007 documentary directed by Marc Levin, describes the rise and fall of former New York City drug kingpin, Leroy (“Nicky”) Barnes. In the early 1970s, Barnes formed “The Council,” an organized crime syndicate that controlled a significant part of the heroin trade in Harlem. Inspired by the Italian-American mafia, Barnes became one of the most powerful and notorious figures in New York City. A flashy and flamboyant fixture on the free-wheeling social scene of the period, Barnes quickly drew the attention of law enforcement. After several unsuccessful state prosecution attempts, Barnes, along with multiple other associates, was indicted by federal prosecutors in New York in 1977. Barnes was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Barnes, however, was released in 1998, in exchange for working as a government informant, and entered the Witness Protection Program, where he remained until his death in 2012.  Barnes was also depicted in Ridley Scott’s 2007 film American Gangster, which starred Denzel Washington as Frank Lucas, another notorious drug kingpin from the era. Cuba Gooding Jr. portrayed Barnes in that film. Joining me to talk about Mr. Untouchable and the Nicky Barnes case is Robert B. Fiske, Jr., Senior Counsel at Davis Polk in New York, where he previously served as litigation partner for many years. Bob Fiske is one of the most prominent and respected trial lawyers in America. He has been involved in some of the most notable cases of the last half-century, including as special prosecutor in the Whitewater controversy and the death of White House counsel Vince Foster, the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster, the antitrust suit between the USFL and. NFL, the most contentious America's Cup ever, and the financial swindler Bernie Madoff.  Mr. Fiske also served as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1976 to 1980, during which time he led the prosecution of Nicky Barnes. 

Timestamps:

0:00   Introduction
3:18     Drug trafficking in Harlem and the South Bronx in the 1970s
4:55    Who was Nicky Barnes
6:27     Trying to bring Barnes to justice
7:57      “Mr. Untouchable” and a call from Attorney General Griffin Bell
13:08   A sequestered and anonymous jury
17:22    Navigating credibility issues with key government witnesses
29:25   An issue with a juror dubbed the “Marlboro Man”
33:46   The guilty verdict against Barnes
36:25   The larger implications of the Barnes case
37:51    The depiction of Nicky Barnes on film


Further reading:

Barnes, Leroy & Folsom, Tom, Mr. Untouchable: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of Heroin’s Teflon Don (2007)

Ferretti, Fred, “Mr. Untouchable,” N.Y. Times (June 5, 1977)

Fiske, Robert B., Prosecutor Defender Counselor: The Memoirs of Robert B. Fiske, Jr. (2014)

Roberts, Sam, “Crime’s ‘Mr. Untouchable’ Emerges From Shadows,” N.Y. Times (Mar. 4, 2007)

Wertheim, Eric, Note, “Anonymous Juries,” 54 Fordham L. Rev. 981 (1986)

Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. 
For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html
You can contact him at jonathanhafetz@gmail.com
You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz 
You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm
You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast

This episode looks at two films about the Cambodian genocide of the 1970s: First They Killed My Father (dir. Angelina Jolie), and The Gate (or Les Temps des Aveux) (dir. Régis Wargnier). First They Killed My Father is based on the memoir of Loung Ung, who was a five-year-old girl when the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia in 1975. Loung Ung was forced to flee Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital, with her family. Loung Ung’s parents were killed, and Loung Ung was separated from her siblings; after surviving in a forced labor camp, Loung Ung was forced to become a child soldier. The Gate tells the story of acclaimed French anthropologist, Francois Bizot, who was imprisoned and tortured by the Khmer Rouge for three months in 1971 on suspicion of being a CIA spy, and who later became the French embassy’s translator and intermediary with the Khmer Rouge until he was forced to flee the country. The films, which are both based on personal memoirs, provide a harrowing account of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. I'm joined by Dr. Melanie O’Brien, Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Western Australia (UWA) Law School and President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars. Dr. O'Brien is a leading expert on genocide and international law, and is the author of acclaimed scholarly books and articles on the subject. 

Timestamps:

0:00      Introduction
3:42       Background on the Khmer Rouge
7:42        Khmer Rouge philosophy and tactics
11:50      Forced marriage
15:37      The role of propaganda
24:58     The use of child soldiers
27:48     Life after genocide
31:42      First They Killed My Father and the Cambodian genocide
38:08     Francois Bizot and Comrade Duch
40:10     The French embassy in Phnom Penh
43:52     The portrayal of Comrade Duch
46:06     The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC)
55:06      Why Cambodia was a genocide
1:00:16    The Khmer Rouge’s destruction of culture
1:07:21     Transitional justice in Cambodia
1:10:33    The role of memoirs after genocide

Further reading:

Becker, Elizabeth, When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution (1988)

Bizot, Francois, The Gate: A Memoir (2004)

Killean, Rachel & Moffett, Luke, “What’s in a Name? ‘Reparations’ at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia,” 21(1) Melbourne J. Int'l Law 115 (2020)

O’Brien, Melanie, “Le Temps des Aveux/The Gate” (review), Law & Culture (2016)

O’Brien, Melanie, From Discrimination to Death: Genocide Process through a Human Rights Lens (Routledge Press 2023)

Sperfeldt, Christoph, “Collective Reparations at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia,” 12 (3), Int’l Criminal L. Rev 457 (2012)

Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember. 
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