Author Archives: Ryan Davidson

The Avengers: Who’s Gonna Pay for That?

Posted on May 11, 2012 | 43 comments

As some have already noted, the damage done to Midtown Manhattan in The Avengers could easily top $160 billion, all told (here’s the original source of that estimate).

That’s a lot of money. By comparison, as the link notes, the total impact of the September 11th attacks was about $83 billion and Hurricane Katrina cost about $90 billion. This is about as much as the two of those put together.

So… who’s gonna pay for all that?

Well, we talked about this subject generally back in December 2010, and the analysis has changed little since then. But The Avengers gives us a chance to apply those general principles to a particular set of facts. Continue reading →

43 Comments

Posted in insurance, international law, movies, torts

The Avengers: S.H.I.E.L.D.

Posted on May 7, 2012 | 51 comments

Last weekend, Marvel’s blockbuster for 2012 came out in North America. The Avengers appears to be on track to shatter box office records both domestically and internationally, and with good reason: it’s an awesome movie.

In the next few posts, we’re going to discuss some of the legal background of various aspects of the movie. We’re going to start with how exactly S.H.I.E.L.D. could work, but there will be more to come in successive posts. There are spoilers to follow, though if you haven’t seen the movie by now, what are you waiting for? We discussed the basics of S.H.I.E.L.D. and international law over a year ago, so it might be worth taking a look at that before jumping in here. Continue reading →

51 Comments

Posted in international law, movies

Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law (Ep. 1-4)

Posted on April 30, 2012 | 13 comments

Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law is one of the original Adult Swim programs, similar in style and concept to the truly classic Spage Ghost Coast to Coast and produced by the same company. But instead of re-purposing old Hanna Barbera cartoons to make a surrealistic talk show, they’re re-purposing old Hanna Barbera cartoons to make a surrealistic legal sitcom of sorts.  In this post we’re talking about the first four episodes of the first season, which are available on DVD. Continue reading →

13 Comments

Posted in criminal law, criminal procedure, family law, television, torts

Time Travel, Resurrection, and Double Jeopardy

Posted on April 23, 2012 | 41 comments

This is an issue raised tangentially by The Kingdom, a sort of spin-off storyline from Kingdom Come. The basic premise is that a villain kills Superman, then goes back in time and kills him again. And does this at more-or-less regular intervals back down the timestream.

The set up suggested at least a possible interaction with double jeopardy, prohibited by the Fifth Amendment, in that we’re looking at a situation where a defendant could potentially be charged more than once for killing the same person. On that note, we’re also going to look at the possibility of a defendant killing someone, the victim rising from the dead, and the defendant killing them again, as it seems factually similar. Continue reading →

41 Comments

Posted in constitutional law, criminal law, criminal procedure, evidence

Snakes on a Plane

Posted on April 16, 2012 | 15 comments

Snakes on a Plane is a terrible, terrible movie (see for yourself, if you don’t believe us).

It’s also bad on the law.

The premise of the movie is that Samuel L. Jackson (who basically plays the movie version of himself, so we’re going to call him Jackson instead of “Neville Flynn”) is escorting a witness from Honolulu to LA to testify in a murder trial there. This is weird in and of itself, but so’s the way they travel: the FBI commandeers the first class cabin of a commercial flight. This is all kinds of wrong. Continue reading →

15 Comments

Posted in administrative law, constitutional law, criminal law, criminal procedure, movies

Castle: 47 Seconds

Posted on April 9, 2012 | 10 comments

In the March 26, 2012 episode of Castle, “47 Seconds,” the police use a rather snazzy bit of technology to identify their suspect: a recording of real-time GPS data tracking all cellphones. We already discussed GPS tracking in reference to Batman: Noel, but this seems to be another situation which would implicate U.S. v. Jones, the recent Supreme Court case dealing with this sort of thing and its interaction with the Fourth Amendment. Continue reading →

10 Comments

Posted in constitutional law, criminal procedure, television

The Hunger Games and Dangerous Sports II

Posted on March 30, 2012 | 7 comments

Two weeks ago, we looked at the legality of a “sporting” event like the one depicted in The Hunger Games. There, we were mostly concerned with the legality of organizing or participating in the Games, recognizing that the Games are obviously legal in Panem but manifestly illegal should someone try to conduct a similar event in real life.

This time, we’re going to look at another angle: potential culpability for spectators and sponsors. Continue reading →

7 Comments

Posted in criminal law, movies

Superman: Grounded (# 707): Theft, Necessity, Insurance, and Mitigation of Damages

Posted on March 26, 2012 | 39 comments

The second hardcover volume of Superman: Grounded came out in December, and the very first issue, Superman # 707, contains a doozy of a legal conundrum.

Here’s the setup. Superman is in Des Moines, Iowa, saving people and basically doing his thing. He’s on his cell phone (Yes, he’s using a cell phone. No, it doesn’t make any sense for him to be doing so.) with Lois, when the chemical plant she’s at has a fire. He hears it and flies over. He puts out the fire with water from a nearby creek, but notices that the fire has caused structural damage to the plant, which is likely to collapse and possibly even reignite. So, seeing a passing truck full of steel bars, he ganks a bunch of them and uses them to shore up the building. The driver of the truck says, and I quote, “Hey, Superjerk, you can’t just take those!” Which is probably true. Superman’s response is “I assure you, sir, it’s for a good cause.” Which is as may be, but doesn’t change the fact that Superman has likely stolen at least several thousand dollars worth of goods. Continue reading →

39 Comments

Posted in criminal law, insurance, superheroes, Superman, torts

John Carter

Posted on March 19, 2012 | 14 comments

John Carter is Disney’s adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom works, drawing mostly from the first book, A Princess of Mars. Actually, it’s really Andrew Stanton’s adaptation, he of WALL-E fame, because it doesn’t seem like Disney had any actual input, into the film or its marketing. The result is… problematic. But lo and behold, they’ve got a lawyer character who winds up touching on a bit of estate law. So we’ll take a look at that. Some pretty significant spoilers follow. Continue reading →

14 Comments

Posted in contracts, estate law, movies

Justice

Posted on March 12, 2012 | 11 comments

Justice is a limited DC comic series by Alex Ross and Jim Krueger with art by Ross and Doug Braithwaite. The basic story is that the world’s supervillains band together to… save the world. Which they seem to, for a while, only to have that turn out badly, after which the Justice League steps in to do its thing. It’s an interesting series for a number of reasons, most particularly because it deals with the rather obvious superhero-related question of why people like Superman don’t “save the world” in more mundane ways, e.g., combating disease, poverty, war, the sorts of things superheroes could probably do if they decided to.

But the series also includes a handful of things, largely tangential to the main story, which bear some legal analysis. We’ll take a look a those here. There are some spoilers inside. Continue reading →

11 Comments

Posted in criminal law