The Students versus Larry Flynt: Bringing Popular Culture into the Law School
| Author | Danish Sheikh |
| Published date | 01 January 2014 |
| Date | 01 January 2014 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/2321005813505459 |
| Subject Matter | Essays |
Military-Madrasa-Mullah Complex 45
India Quarterly, 66, 2 (2010): 133–149
A Global Threat 45
Essay
The Students versus Larry Flynt:
Bringing Popular Culture into
the Law School
Danish Sheikh
Abstract
This article is anchored in two narratives: first, that of law and popular culture scholarship and second,
of the Indian law school. Starting with law and popular culture as a ‘ite’ of legal scholarship: this has
often been the cast-off step child when it comes to the Indian law school. Two reasons for this—one,
the subject itself, the difficulty that many academic circles have with taking it ‘seriously’, of keeping
it on par with other more conventional areas of legal study and second, the law school’s resistance
to change.
As for the Indian law school: Two decades from the establishment of the first national law school,
there are rising doubts on the success of this experiment and whatever impact it may have had on the
legal education system in India as a whole. A closer look at these institutions show that the veneer
of adequate infrastructure cloaks an increasingly decaying framework. Whether it be the myopic aim
(‘increasing the quality of the bar’), which itself has clearly failed, or issues of curriculum, methodology
and evaluation techniques, the law school in India has fallen into an epistemic trap it is struggling to get
out of.
It is at this juncture that I believe a focus on law and popular culture scholarship and pedagogic
techniques at the Indian law school may well be one way out. Ranging from the need for making our
legal curricula multidisciplinary, creative and flexible, to understanding how the very idea of focusing on
the study of this area will counter the Indian law school’s troubling ‘resistance to change’, I make a case
for inculcating the study of law and popular culture at multiple levels within the law school framework.
I back this up with instances of just how pop culture can be successfully utilized to make for a more
interesting learning experience for everyone concerned. My own experiences as visiting faculty on
media law at two institutions have been invaluable in grounding this article in experiential reality.
Prologue
Fresh out of the gate of law school, I found myself conducting a course in media law at a college in
Bangalore. We were on the obscenity module and in a flash of inspiration, I decided to organize a
screening of ‘The People versus Larry Flynt’. For the uninitiated, this is the 1996 biographical drama
directed by Milos Forman featuring the rise of Hustler magazine editor and publisher Larry Flynt and his
subsequent clash(es) with the law. The movie features multiple discussions on the question of regulating
obscenity: at times it even features said obscenity. At any rate, I ventured forth to schedule the screening
one fine day, left the film running for the class to see and left the campus for the day.
Danish Sheikh is a Researcher at the Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore, India.
Asian Journal of Legal Education
1(1) 45–55
© 2014 The West Bengal National
University of Juridical Sciences
SAGE Publications
Los Angeles, London,
New Delhi, Singapore,
Washington DC
DOI: 10.1177/2321005813505459
http://ale.sagepub.com
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