Alien Hunter (2003).

Director: Ron Krauss
Body Count: 10, 1 dog, 1 alien

Get those visions of men in camoflauge hunting down evil aliens out of you mind, because, well thats not what this movie is about (I know, I know – why would they name it that if it wasn’t about killing aliens…beyond me). The movie is about some Antarctic scientists that find a frozen alien and set it free. The twist, its friendly yet it carries a flesh eating virus that tends to kill off the people. The government knows all this (of course) and has plans on nuking the whole place. What I don’t get: apparently this same virus got out at Roswell (yes THE Roswell), and didn’t kill off mankind, so if the virus couldn’t escape the New Mexico Desert how does it plan on getting off Antarctica? AND why are we obsessed with Aliens with organic technology? AND why is the transmission that says not to open the capsule encrypted out the wazoo and in English once decrypted? If you don’t want someone to open something why would you write it in code?

Alien hunting law:

1. How about a little good old fashioned space law: Julian (played by James Spader . . . yeah THE James Spader) used to be involved with SETI . . . until the government pulled the funding.

2. More space law: one character states that “NASA obsessed with selling Congress on Planetary colonization.” Don’t hold your breath on that particular apprpriation.

3. They are going to nuke Antarctica. There is a treaty known as the Antartcic Treaty that states that the Antarctic is for Peaceful Purposes. Seems to me that this might be a bold move for just the American’s and the Russians. There would be a bit of an International law issue and fall out.

4. And as always when those Aliens come out Metalaw comes in. How do we treat a friendly Alien with a nasty virus?

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Cutthroat Island (1995)

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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The Third Man (1949)

Director: Carol Reed

This murder mystery is set in post World War II Vienna. Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten), an American writer arrives in Vienna to hunt down an old croney, Harry Lime (Orson Welles), only to find that he has arrived on the day of his friends funeral. He is determined to find out what has happened to Lime and is soon embroiled in a murder investigation that keeps getting murkier and murkier.

That post war law:

1. Post war Vienna is cut into four segmants and each one is administered by a different state (UK, US, France, and Russia). The center of the city is run an international coalition of all four.

2. There was an inquest (not shown only mentioned) over the death of Harry, but evidence was not heard from the porter and a third unknown man. The Porter is told by Martin that “it was his duty to give evidence,” but the porter adamantly did not want to testify.

3. Search and seizure. A member of each police force show up to search Anna Schmitt’s (Alida Valli) room (as it is in the center of the city). They give her reciepts for everything confiscated.

4. Ms. Schmitt is found with a forged passport. We are told this is because she is a Czech and “the Russians could claim her.” We later see a police interrogation of her.

5.SPOILER WARNING: As it turns out Harry is still alive, but the police are after him for some nasty crimes. He is living in the Russian part of the city, because (for political reasons) he is safe from arrest there.

6. Harry claims crime money is “free of income tax.” He should consult with Al Capone on that one.

7. Harry also claims that while the government “talks about people and the proletariat,” it doesn’t care about the people. This is a statement both of a political nature and one used as a justification for Harry’s criminal acts.

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Bad Taste (1987)

Director: Peter Jackson

It is only when one watches Peter Jackson’s early films that you are awe struck by the fact that a production company would entrust massive amounts of money to him to make the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It is a leap of faith of epic proportions. These early works are generally juvenile and poorly made, but they do have something about them that make them strangely endearing.

In Bad Taste a group of aliens has landed on earth and has harvested an entire town full of people in order to take them back and use them as the new Fast Food on their planet. Luckily there is a government team that is assigned to investigate. It then turns into an all out blood bath between man and alien.

Law in bad taste:

1. As always when there is a government entity that has legal authority over extraterrestrials we get an issue of metalaw. No one in the film really worries about it as they commence to kicking alien butts (which are real saggy).

2. The Government agency is authorized to use violence when there is a threat to the Earth or the Moon. This could be a question of space law. Can the “peaceful purposes” clause in the Outer Space Treaty be breached in order to defend the moon against human eating aliens (maybe that’ll be in part two)?

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Superman Returns (2006)

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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