Symposium—Legal Outsiders in American Film
The concept of justice is a dominant theme in traditional Western liberal culture. Indeed, the ideal of justice has taken on an almost mythic quality in our political and social culture. Interestingly, however, the prevailing myth is not one where the possibility of finding justice lies in relying upon or utilizing the public institutions of Western society. Instead, some of our most important cultural artifacts often go to great lengths to point out how finding justice in social and political institutions is seemingly impossible. The dominant message appears to be that justice is something found outside accepted social institutions, if it is to be found at all. Beyond this is the underlying perception that social institutions are often obstacles to the possibility of attaining justice. Civil society, then, is not the path to justice. In fact, many of the cultural messages we are exposed to suggest that following the bounds of civil society actually makes it less likely that justice will be attained. Law, as a sociopolitical institution, and more specifically the judicial system, are frequent focal points for such criticism. . . .