This a fun little romp about a Catholic demon enlisted by the United States to fight supernatural monsters. Nothin’ deep, but its pretty rad.

Hellish law:

1. The movie starts with the Germans and the Allies trying to use black magic to change to outcome of WWII. Sounds like a good law review article as to whether that violates the laws of international armed conflict. I mean is it sufficiently targetable? Would it limit suffering to combatants and civilians?

2. I love a good fake government agency: Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.

3. Administrative Law: The FBI wants to get through awall to get some monster eggs that can hatch into bad things pretty quick, but they want to stop and get the proper permit.

4. Customs: They have to get clearance to Hellboy into Moscow. Yes, you must declare demons.

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Director: Renny Harlin

Cutthroat Island is a fun little Pirate adventure. Geena Davis plays Morgan Adams a female pirate that is in search of her fathers hidden treasure. Unfortunately for her, her uncle, Dog, is after it too. To really mix it all up the British navy is involved. Not bad for a Sunday afternoon, not to spectacular either.

Arrrrgh, law:

1. In Port Royal there is a shot of Pirates being hanged. Let us not forget that Piracy is the first international crime to sport Universal Jurisdaiction, due to its threat to all nations.

2. There is pirate law itself. On the ship there is an orderly system with each person filling and office. There are some good pirate law moments on board as well as a mutiny wherein the legal system itself is overturned.

3. The Jolly Roger is the flag of the ship, which sets it outside the jurisdiction of all states, but at the same time (due to universal jurisdiction) sets it within the juirsdiction of all. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

4. Dog swaps sides to the British Navy in order to gain a pardon. As a result he is made a privateer, essentially a legal pirate.

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Director: Bryan Singer

Another movie from a transatlantic flight – Delta again – this time they gave me a headphones that didn’t work in one ear. I pressed the stewardess button and it stayed on for an hour. Rubbish airline.

Superman Returns is exactly what it says it is. He’s back. Lex is back. Lois is back. I personally thought that the film was damn good (but I may have been comparing it with Delta’s roast chicken . . . or the Jack and ginger could have been kicking in). Kevin Spacey bring Lex Luther back to life quite brilliantly, and about half way through I realized that Brandon Routh wasn’t Christopher Reeve.

And its full of legal tidbits:

1. Act 1, Scene 1: Lex is bedside with an old woman who is signing her will which gives her estate to Lex – just before she dies. I think that there could be an argument for duress here, but more importantly there is no witness. There is no way Lex gets the estate so quickly. Can we say “lots of court.”

2. Superman’s first big deed is to save an airplane that has a space shuttle connected to it. The whole idea is that the shuttle will be launched from the back of the plane to save fuel (guess no one told them NASA was phasing that shuttle out). More importantly though, this causes questions about the delineation between airspace and outer space. This particular contraption would cause all sorts of difficulties for those that endorse the functionality view of the question. Also as to any claims made by those in the airplane, would they fall under the Liability Convention or do they fall under the Federal Tort Claims Act?

3. There are questions as to vigilante “justice.” The scoop at the Daily Planet one day is “Superman: Does he still stand for justice?”

4. More great police work. The police have barricaded a building that has villains with big guns in it, but the security guards are still wandering around inside with small guns.

5. Lex is out of jail because he won his 5th appeal. Apparently the appeals court called Superman as a witness, and he didn’t show up. This is just shoddy writing, the appeals court wouldn’t call a witness; they would rule for a new trial.

6. Lex tells Superman that he is “not so good at the little things like Miranda Rights, due process, making a court date.”

7. Lex is making a new continent. Right in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. So lets first talk a little bit about the law of the sea. Usually when land is suddenly created where there was once water, whoever had the rights to that area before gets the land, but of course no one owns the high seas. The question is can Lex actually claim the land as his? Someone actually asks Luthor if he thinks the rest of the world will let him keep the new continent . Also though, new land might very well require new property law, especially with such a vast amount.

8. Superman takes the land Lex created and puts it into orbit. Is it now a celestial body under the auspices of the Outer Space Treaty or the Moon Treaty? Or since it has an earthly origin is it a space object?

9. Oh yeah, Lex means law.

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Director: Jon Amiel
This horrible little action adventure film has the United States creating a weapon that stops the core of the Earth from spinning. This is going to lead to the end of the world because . . . well because that is what happens when the center of the earth stops spinning. As a solution to this pesky problem, the US government enlists a team of scientists and geologists to build a craft that can go to the center of the earth and set off nuclear explosions to get the core going again (I know it sounds like a bad Jules Verne novel).

These are the legal quandries:

1. At the beginning a Space Shuttle crashes into downtown Los Angeles. This damage isn’t covered by the Liability Convention. Just what sort of insurance is NASA toting?

2. The United States developed the weapon on the grounds of Mutually Assured Destruction. Seems to fit.

3. The guys are cruising around in a ship underground. Now, granting that the ship is made out of a material called unobtainium that ain’t remotely real, just how far down does national soveriegnty go.

4. The United States saves the world, but also destroyed part of it first. How much state responsibility is gonna apply to the destruction of Rome?

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