A crucial question in the analysis of legal practices concerns the processes of identification with, in and as law - a question of how and by what route law achieves its ends. This book considers how law and legal practices figure in the cultural field; and, specifically, in film.

A crucial question in the analysis of legal practices concerns the processes of identification with, in and as law - a question of how and by what route law achieves its ends. While it is conventional to interpret the practices of law through the institutional sources of the legal tradition, The Scene of Violence considers how law and legal practices figure in the cultural field; and, specifically, in film.

'Alison Young may be the best law and film scholar in the world. Her insight and eminence in the field are amply on display in The Scene of Violence. Here Young draws our attention to what she calls "the spectatorial relation engendered by film." No one who watches a film will ever watch it the same way after reading this book. No one who has ever thought about the relationship of law, violence and film will ever think about them the same way after reading this book. The Scene of Violence will be an instant classic.'- Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professorof Jurisprudenceand Political Science at Amherst College