Abstract
In this chapter Samantha Halliday engages in a lively conversation with Christine Jarvis, in which they explore how classroom discussions of the popular Harry Potter books, familiar to many students from their childhoods onward, can provide a novel approach to the study of a complex concept, the rule of law. Halliday uses these books to encourage critical reflection upon issues of social justice and in/equality. For example, Marxist theories of law stress that the rule of law serves to reinforce the political and economic status quo and this is well illustrated by the way in which memory charms are used to ‘protect’ muggles and the way house-elves are legally the property of the wizarding family that owns them, unable to disobey, or escape servitude.
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Halliday, S., in conversation with Christine Jarvis. (2019). Using Harry Potter to Enhance the Critical Appreciation of Law or Questioning Whether the Rule of Law Is as Much a Reality as the Crumpled Horned Snorkack. In: Jarvis, C., Gouthro, P. (eds) Professional Education with Fiction Media. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17693-8_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17693-8_5
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