The Illustrated Guide to Law
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| The Illustrated Guide to Law | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Nathan Burney |
| Website | http://lawcomic.net/ |
| Current status/schedule | No fixed schedule, updates several times per month |
| Launch date | 03 December 2011 |
| Genre(s) | law, history, government, crime, public policy, education |
Search The Illustrated Guide to Law on Amazon.
The Illustrated Guide to Law is a free webcomic written and illustrated by attorney Nathan Burney..[1] Subtitled "the comic that teaches what the law really is… how the law really works (or doesn't)… and why,"[2] Burney has described it as "everything you would learn in a law school class, without the law school stress and student loans."[3] Since its launch in December 2011, the comic has taught subjects of criminal law, criminal procedure, constitutional law, as well as the relevant history behind particular legal concepts and competing policy interests.
The comic is noted for its ability to make complex topics accessible to general audiences with easy-to-follow narratives and Burney's "humor, wit, and passion."[4] Pedagogically, each topic begins with a presumption that the reader has no pre-existing knowledge, or at best has been misled by common misconceptions about the law; it then gradually introduces ideas and debunks myths until eventually building to the discussion of sophisticated legal concepts and difficult policy disputes.[5] The text employs short sentences and avoids jargon, supported by illustrations that provide much of the narrative and detail.
The Illustrated Guide to Law is also known for its flowcharts, which visually and creatively summarize how to think through such complicated issues as search and seizure,[6] rape,[7] self-incrimination,[8] and eyewitness identification.[9] An "explainer" comic on Qualified Immunity was also published by The Washington Post.[10]
Frequently, the comic digresses to provide detailed historical background for particular legal concepts, such as a history of self-incrimination law which began in Medieval England and ended with modern police interrogation techniques such as the Reid technique, and the line of jurisprudence that resulted in Miranda v. Arizona.[11] As of April 2023, the comic is in the middle of a lengthy "History of Government in Six Revolutions: From the Paleolithic to Philadelphia," in order to provide context for upcoming topics in U.S. Constitutional Law.[12]
Development[edit]
Burney started the comic originally as an offshoot of his law blog, "The Criminal Lawyer,"[13] in which a recurring topic was the myths and misconceptions that non-lawyers often believe about the law and how the legal system functions.[14] To test whether he could address such misconceptions in a manner more amenable to a general audience, he launched the comic on his Tumblr page in December 2011.[15] In 2012, after the comic had gained popularity, Burney set it up on its own dedicated website, at lawcomic.net.[16] Burney does all of the research, writing, and illustrations himself. The artwork evolved dramatically in the first years: according to the website TV Tropes, "[t]he author has acknowledged that, at first, he didn't think anybody would be reading it, so the art was done quickly and inconsistently. But once he realized he had an audience, he started putting more effort into the art."[17]
Reception[edit]
The comic and its printed collections have been praised by the American Bar Association[18], the Library of Congress[19], the Oxford Handbook of Law and Humanities[20], and multiple law schools, journalists, and critics.[21][22][23][24][25][26], and was featured in the joint Yale/Grolier exhibition "Law's Picture Books."[27]
The Illustrated Guide to Law is sometimes assigned as supplemental reading in American high school, undergraduate, and law school classes, and has also been used to teach American legal concepts to immigrants whose primary language is not English.[28] The comic has also been cited in academic papers on visual communication and legal pedagogy.[29][30][31]
References[edit]
- ↑ Burney, Nathan. "Nathan Burney on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ↑ Burney, Nathan. "Home Page". The Illustrated Guide to Law. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ↑ Interview with the author at New York Comic Con, October 2015
- ↑ "The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law". Goodreads. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ↑ "The Illustrated Guide to Law". TV Tropes. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ↑ Burney, Nathan. "Fourth Amendment Flowchart". The Illustrated Guide to Law. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ↑ Burney, Nathan. "Was It Rape?". The Illustrated Guide to Law. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ↑ Burney, Nathan. "Fifth Amendment Flowchart". The Illustrated Guide to Law. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ↑ Burney, Nathan. "Welcome to Fingerpointin' Falls". The Illustrated Guide to Law. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ↑ Balko, Radley. "The Watch". The Washington Post. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ↑ Burney, Nathan. "Convict Yourself". The Illustrated Guide to Law. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ↑ Burney, Nathan. "A Brief History of Government in Six Revolutions: from the Paleolithic to Philadelphia". The Illustrated Guide to Law. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ↑ "The 2011 ABA Journal Blawg 100". ABA Journal. American Bar Association. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ↑ Burney, Nathan (2012). The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law. Jones McClure. p. Introduction. Search this book on
- ↑ Burney, Nathaniel. "What Is Crime?". Tumblr. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ↑ Burney, Nathan. "What Is Crime?". The Illustrated Guide to Law. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ↑ "Art Evolution: Webcomics". TV Tropes. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ↑ Rawles, Lee. "What If Crim Law was Taught by Cartoons?". ABA Journal. American Bar Association. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ↑ Davis, Jennifer (27 July 2015). "Comics and the Law". Library of Congress. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ↑ Stern, Simon (2020). The Oxford Handbook of Law and Humanities. Oxford University Press. pp. 846–848, 862. Search this book on
- ↑ Harvard Law School. "Criminal Law Overview". Harvard.edu. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ↑ Widener, Michael (2017). Law's Picture Books: The Yale Law Library Collection. Talbot Publishing. p. 159. Search this book on
- ↑ Shropshire, Philip (20 April 2012). "The Illustrated Guide to Law". Comics Forge. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ↑ Duke Law Library (28 June 2012). "New Ways to Cram for the Bar Exam". The Goodson Blogson. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ↑ Duke, John David, Jr. (12 May 2015). "Absence of War Makes the Heart Grow Fonder". Sweet Talk Conversation. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ↑ Doctorow, Cory (13 December 2014). "The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Procedure". BoingBoing.
- ↑ Louis-Jacques, Lyonette (19 September 2017). "Picturing the Law". Slaw: Canada's Online Legal Magazine. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
- ↑ Pavlenko, Aneta; Hepford, Elizabeth; Tavella, Christina; Michalovic, Sherri (December 2020). "Everyone Has the Right to Understand: Teaching Legal Rights to ESL Students". TESOL Journal. 11 (4). doi:10.1002/tesj.570. hdl:10852/84064. Unknown parameter
|s2cid=ignored (help) - ↑ Ledwon, Lenora (2015). "Understanding Visual Metaphors: What Graphic Novels Can Teach Lawyers About Visual Storytelling". Drake Law Review. 63: 193.
- ↑ Colbran, Stephen (2015). "Online and Beyond". Journal of the Australasian Law Teachers Association. 8 (1): 57-83.
- ↑ Murray, Michael (2021–2022). "Toward a Universal Visual Language of Law". Law and Psychology Review. 46: 1–88.
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