The new - and last - Harry Potter book flies onto shelves this weekend, and lawyers aren't immune to its spell.
It's probably because they're so interested in the legal issues raised in the books. Legal scholars have speculated on the intriguing copyright issues raised by pictures of subjects that can move in and out of the frame (a paper done at Georgetown University's law school). They've also questioned whether a house-elf can, indeed, be accidentally released from indentured servitude if its master didn't intend to do so (we're talking to you, Lucius Malfoy - call your lawyer).
And who the heck elected Cornelius Fudge as Minister of Magic anyway? Recount, indeed.
Even a 2002 criminal law exam at American University Washington College of Law tossed in a gratuitous Harry Potter mention.
Questions? One of the few remaining Muggle souls who doesn't know what we're talking about? Call the Wizengamot.
If I may shill for the friend who wrote that Harry Potter paper at Georgetown, it's available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=899865
Posted by: Matt Levy | July 17, 2007 at 08:02 PM