Roundtable Law & Popular Culture VIII

Thursday, 18 June 2026

09:00   Registration

09:20   Opening Remarks by Eline Couperus 
 

• First Session: Law at the Edge of Order: Violence, Horror and Determinism
  Moderator: David Roef

09:30   Matthieu Carray, The Right that Never Was: Émile Zola’s Germinal and the 1864 Right to Strike 
09:45   Discussion  

10:00   András Molnár, Law, Horror, and the Destabilisation of the Concept of Natural Order
10:15   Discussion

10:30   Nicola Kalwa, “This Wretched Mockery of Justice” - Early Nineteenth Century Criminal Trials in Europe through Mary Shelley’s Eyes
10:45   Discussion

11:00   Break 
 

• Second Session, Justifying Force: Law, Morality and Cultural Narratives 
  Moderator: Henrique Marcos

11:10   Kis Kelemen Bence, Star Wars and Our Understanding of Right and Wrong in Times of War
11:25   Discussion

11:40   Michele Giorgino and Filippo Santarelli, The Limits of Blameworthiness: Inexigibility between Literature, Cinema, and Criminal Law 
11:55   Discussion

12:10   Davit Khachatyran, You Have Oil, So We’re Bringing Democracy: Meme Culture and the Credibility of Legal Justifications for Force
12:25   Discussion

12:40   Lunch
 

• Third Session, Melodies of Law 
  Moderator: Debbie Markusse

13:40    Aravind Ganesh, The Vīnā, the Gańgā, and the Dīkṣita: Justice T.L. Venkatarama Iyer and the Creation of   a Great Indian Composer: A Lecture-Performance
14:10    Discussion             

14:25    Break
 

• Fourth Session, Temporalities and Spatialities in and beyond Law
  Moderator: Paul Stewens

14:30    Sarah Thin, Time And Relative Dimension In Space (TARDIS): Time Travel, Temporal Jurisdiction, and International Law
14:45    Discussion

15:00    Narek Abgaryan, Coppola’s Megalopolis and the Legal Personality of Cities: Utopia or a New Stage in the Development of International Law
15:15    Discussion

15:30    Chiara Gallo, The “Perpetual” Afterlife of Mondrian, Matisse, and Other Modern Art Works under U.S. Copyright Law
15:45    Discussion

16:00    Break
 

• Fifth Session, Construction and Control of Identity
  Moderator: Mathijs Notermans

16:10    Anna Chronopoulou, ‘Queering’ Women Lawyers’ Representations in U.S. Indie Films
16:25    Discussion

16:40    Kaif Siddiqui and Asna Shamim, The ‘Screenlife’ of Law: Conformity and Identity in CTRL (2024) and Logout (2025) 
16:55    Discussion

17:10    Felice Peeters, Dragshows, Discourse, and Legislation
17:25    Discussion

17:40    Reception and Drinks 

Friday, 19 June 2026

• Sixth Session, Tradition, Culture, and the Making of Collective Identity
  Moderator: Sophia Zaka

09:30   Arthur Willemse, The Free Use of the Law: Nativity, Life, and Tradition in von Savigny and Hölderlin
09:45   Discussion

10:00    Salvatore Casabona, The Emotional Normativity of the Popular Proverbs
10:15    Discussion

10:30    Domenico di Micco, Mario Riberi, and Matteo Travers, Fathers, Fatherland, and Law: Giuseppe Verdi and the Risorgimento within Italian Popular Culture
10:45    Discussion 

11:00    Break

• Seventh Session, Law in Times of Crises
  Moderator: Anna Chronopoulou

11:10   Beatrice De Angelis, When Identity Becomes Illegal: Comparing Discrimination in 1930s Nazi Germany and Harry Potter
11:25    Discussion

11:40    Hugo Mandák, “Without Case”: Animal Farm’s Sixth Commandment and the Practice of Retroactive Legislation in Stalin’s USSR 
11:55    Discussion

12:10   Sophie Ahern, Reproduction, Law, and Constructed Narratives under States of Exception in Dystopian Fiction
12:25   Discussion

12:40    Lunch
 

• Eighth Session, Construction of Legal Narratives and Legal Understanding
  Moderator: Tina Ishak

14:00    Johanna Ritter, Law, Brains, and Society: How Popular Culture Shapes Legal Understanding 
14:15    Discussion

14:30    Ann-Sophie Haspel, A Druid, a Bard, and a Jurist join the Party: Dungeons & Dragons and the Law School
14:45    Discussion

15:00   Surbhi Wadhwa and Saket Gogia, Trial by Timeline: How Viral Social Media Movements Influence Judicial Decision-Making
15:15   Discussion

15:30    Break
 

• Keynote Address

15:40    Introduction of Speaker by Agustín Parise

15:45    Keynote Speaker Livia Solaro, All is Fair? Bridging the Gap between Law and Communication

16:10    Break

16:20    General Discussion  

16:50    Closing Remarks by Arthur Willemse