Law & Popular Culture Research Network

Welcome to the Law & Popular Culture Research Network (LPC-RN) homepage. LPC-RN is a research initiative based at Maastricht University that brings together activities focused on the intersection of law and popular culture. Our goal is to bring together diverse approaches to the place of law in popular culture, and to explore the manner in which popular culture affects law and its understanding by actors in society. LPC-RN seeks to investigate alternative perspectives on law and the underlying value that non-conventional approaches contribute to a deeper understanding of the social sciences.

LPC-RN news

Visit the "Hugo and the Law" Book Exhibition (7 May - 19 September 2025)

Discover Victor Hugo’s multifaceted conception of the law through the “Hugo and the Law” book exhibition, on display at the Law Faculty until 19 September 2025. Inaugurated during the international event “Hugo and the Law”, the exhibition features books from UM’s Special Collections, connecting them to Hugo’s reflections on law, justice, and society.

Visitors are guided along three thematic paths: Social Injustice, Punishment, and Circulation of Ideas and Knowledge. Designed as a multi-sensory experience, the exhibition invites visitors along an olfactory and musical journey that sets the basis for a deeper engagement with the books on display. Finally, a selection of artworks from Maisons Victor Hugo provides a glimpse into Hugo’s work as a visual artist.

Visit the exhibition at Bouillonstraat 1-3, 6211 LH Maastricht, in the Lenculenhal

Upcoming events

Roundtable Law and Popular Culture VII

19 Jun

20 Jun

Members

Steering Committee

Members

Become a member

Membership in our network will enable you to be informed about our activities and projects. We also welcome your suggestions for potential speakers or themes for our activities that would fit under the Law & Popular Culture umbrella. Additionally, as a member, you will have the opportunity to share projects and to foster synergy across departments/initiatives within the LPC-RN.

Are you interested in joining the Network? Please contact a member of the Steering Committee.

Pillars

The LPC-RN is anchored in the Faculty of Law of Maastricht University by three pillars: the annual Roundtable, the Lecture Series, and the events on Law in Stories (LiSt). These three pillars of the LPC-RN collectively foster a strong academic community that shares an interest in the comprehensive exploration of the intersection between law and popular culture.

Roundtable Series

The Roundtable aims to bring together multiple approaches to the place of law in popular culture. The Roundtable wants to discuss the manner in which popular culture affects law and how it is understood by actors in society. The Roundtable explores law in different environments, such as art and entertainment, as well as cultural movements that constitute phenomena to which the law must relate. Furthermore, besides these general areas within our social reality, the Roundtable is also a space to discuss the legal significance of certain objects that either defy or deplete categorisation.

Lecture Series

By means of establishing a Lecture Series, the LPC-RN involves distinguished scholars who present on the topic. The lectures are open to the entire UM community, including students, non-academic staff, and academic staff. The community at UM Law can only benefit from contrasting their perceptions of law with those of other external actors, exposing our perceptions to experts in other forums, and hence engaging in enriching dialogue.

Law in Stories

The Law in Stories Series (LiSt) aims to bring members of the UM Law community to enter into meaningful discussions about law by engaging with different kinds of media and the law. Through this exploration of media and the law, LiSt seeks to discuss and raise awareness that the law is omnipresent, and a legal perspective can be adopted to all kind of topics in everyday life.

Research Output

Our members engage in different ways of sharing their research output. These manifestations are represented in PhD projects, monographs, scientific chapters and articles, blog entries, conference papers, and cultural exhibits. These are the 10 latest publications by the LPC-RN members. Want to see all of them? Click 'see more research output'.

Latest research output

See more research output

07.11.2024	Parise, Agustín	“Cinema as a Mirror of the Law”, LiSt Law in Stories Session, Maastricht University (Maastricht, The Netherlands).
29.10.2024	Stewens, Paul P.	“My Genocide, My Responsibility” – The 100’s Massacre at Mount Weather and International Criminal Law, Opinio Juris
21.09.2024	Solaro, Livia & Yu, Haiyang	“The Under-protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage: Some Considerations in Light of Getty v. Italy”, International Maritime and Transport Law Course, Inter-University Centre (IUC) Dubrovnik (Dubrovnik, Croatia).
24.07.2024	Solaro, Livia	“Case Review: Getty v. Italy (2024)”, Center for Art Law.
15.05.2024	Parise, Agustín	“Legal Science and Fairy Tales: A Fruitful Combination”, Opening of the FASoS Pop-up Edition of the Exhibit Once Upon a Law: The Grimm Brothers’ Stories, Language, and Legal Culture, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (Maastricht, The Netherlands).
07.05.2024	Solaro, Livia	“La Chimera + Panel discussion”, Lumière Cinema (Maastricht, The Netherlands).
03.05.2024	Visconti, Arianna	"Forme del disconoscimento nella narrativa di Thomas Hardy e Margaret Atwood", in G. Donati - G. Forti - C. Mazzucato - A. Visconti (a cura di), Il corpo dell’altro. La parola e la violenza, Vita e Pensiero, Milano, pp. 83-116
18.03.2024	Solaro, Livia	“The Law of Restitution: Ethical Ambiguities of the Italian Approach.”, From Linguistic Innovation to Cultural Transformation: Unpacking the Implications of ICOM's New Museum Definition in Italy and France, University of Bologna (Bologna, Italy).
27.01.2024	Parise, Agustín	“Ius ad bellum e ius in bello en la “Historia de la Guerra” (1942-1946) de Lino Palacio”, VIII Encuentro Internacional Ficción y Derecho, Facultad de Derecho, Universidad de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, Argentina).
10.01.2024	Parise, Agustín; Rabinovich-Berkman, Ricardo & Somovilla, Claudia	“Diálogo de Café: La Historia del Derecho y los Pasados Ficticios”, Universidad de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
29.11.2023	Parise, Agustín	“La omnipresencia de la codificación del derecho: Reflexiones desde la industria cinematográfica y televisiva de los EE. UU. durante el siglo XX”, 5º Encuentro Internacional sobre Cine, Series y Derecho, Universidad de Chile (Santiago, Chile)
25.09.2023	Parise, Agustín	“Censura de Les Misérables (1862) en la primera mitad del siglo XX: La épica travesía de Jean Valjean entre códigos e índices”, Arte y Derecho en Girona, Universitat de Girona (Girona, Spain)
19.07.2023	Parise, Agustín & Willemse, Arthur	“Manifestaciones bioéticas en La Lección de Anatomía de Rembrandt y en el diseño del Teatro Anatómico del Archiginnasio de Bolonia”, Artes Visuales y Bioética, Academia Nacional de Medicina (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
23.06.2023	Parise, Agustín	“‘What is that sticker sticking on my cultural object?’ Censorship of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables (1862) in the 1934 Motion Picture Production Code and the 1948 Index Librorum Prohibitorum”, Roundtable on Law and Popular Culture V, Maastricht University (Maastricht, The Netherlands)
23.06.2023	Solaro, Livia	“A Legal Education from the Marvel Universe: From Daredevil to She-Hulk”, Roundtable on Law and Popular Culture V, Maastricht University (Maastricht, The Netherlands)
23.06.2023	Willemse, Arthur	“Nihilism and Democracy: Moral Argument and Hypocrisy in Populist Political Discourse”, Roundtable on Law and Popular Culture V, Maastricht University (Maastricht, The Netherlands)
09.03.2023	Solaro, Livia	“‘Arte Liberata’ – An Exhibition to Investigate the Italian Struggle to Protect the Country’s Cultural Heritage during World War II”, Center for Art Law, available at https://itsartlaw.org/2023/03/09/wywh-arte-liberata-an-exhibition-to-investigate-the-italian-struggle-to-protect-the-countrys-cultural-heritage-during-world-war-ii/
2023	Visconti, Arianna	"La fantascienza all’esplorazione dell’«ultima frontiera»: dilemmi etici e conflitti giuridici nell’universo narrativo di «Star Trek», e oltre", in A. Cattaneo - G. Forti - A. Visconti (a cura di), Oltre i confini della realtà. La fantascienza e gli universi distopici della Giustizia, Vita e Pensiero, Milano, pp. 3-37
27.10.2022	Stewens, Paul P.	Reparation for Injuries Suffered in the Service of the Rescue Aid Society: Imagining the UN Through Disney's 'The Rescuers', Opinio Juris
01.10.2022	Parise, Agustín	“Legal Science through the Lens of Fairy Tales”, Maastricht University Faculty of Law Blogs, available at https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/blog/2022/10/legal-science-through-lens-fairy-tales
09.09.2022	Parise, Agustín	“Fairy Tales as Mirrors of Local Rules”, Fairy Tales. Once Upon a Law: Three Voices \| One Book, PAS – Pleasure, Art & Science (Maastricht, The Netherlands)
01.09.2022-22.12.2022	Sitzia, Emilie; Parise, Agustín; Essers, Odin; Prinz, Melissa; Strüder, Kevin; Nelson, Olivia; Moula, Konstantina; Briese, Katja & Gasparri, Elena	“Once Upon a Law: The Grimm Brothers’ Stories, Language, and Legal Culture”, Exhibit at Maastricht University (Maastricht, The Netherlands), available also at https://onceuponalaw.org/
31.08.2022	Parise, Agustín	“Legal Science through the Lens of Fairy Tales”, Opening of the Exhibit Once Upon a Law: The Grimm Brothers’ Stories, Language, and Legal Culture, Maastricht University (Maastricht, The Netherlands)
08.07.2022	Solaro, Livia	“All that glitters is not gold: A critical look at the double-sided effects of Nazi looted art litigation in US courts”, Courts as an Arena for Societal Change, Leiden University (Leiden, The Netherlands)
17.06.2022	Couperus, Eline	“House & Techno Culture Shaping Law: How the Dancefloor Hurts and Heals ”, Roundtable on Law and Popular Culture IV, Maastricht University (Maastricht, The Netherlands)
17.06.2022	Solaro, Livia	“From Walt Disney to Stan Lee: A Comparative Analysis of the Shady Copyright Issues behind Comic Book Legends”, Roundtable on Law and Popular Culture IV, Maastricht University (Maastricht, The Netherlands)
2022	Solaro, Livia	Il saccheggio nazista dell’arte europea. Uno Sguardo Comparatistico sul Contenzioso Transnazionale nei Restitution Cases, Franco Angeli ed., Milan, 176 pp.
22.10.2021	Parise, Agustín	“A Night in the Museum with Defoe, Covid-19, and the Resilience of Law”, Museumnacht Maastricht, Boekhandel Dominicanen (Maastricht, The Netherlands)
01.09.2021– ongoing	Solaro, Livia	“Nazi-looted art litigation as restitution of cultural property: the US approach in a comparative perspective”, PhD Project, Maastricht University (Maastricht, The Netherlands)
31.07.2021	Parise, Agustín	“El derecho entre los Yahoos en la literatura de Jonathan Swift y Jorge L. Borges”, VIIEncuentro Internacional Ficción y Derecho, Facultad de Derecho, Universidad de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
01.03.2021	Parise, Agustín	“Defoe, Covid-19, and Resilience of Law and Society”, Maastricht University Faculty of Law Blogs, available at https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/blog/2021/03/defoe-covid-19-and-resilience-law-and-society
2021	Visconti, Arianna	"Between “Colonial Amnesia” and “Victimization Biases”: Double Standards in Italian Cultural Heritage Law", in International Journal of Cultural Property, 2021 (28) 4, pp. 551-573
2021	Parise, Agustín	“¿Has oído hablar del Código Napoleón? Codificación y acceso a justicia en la adaptación cinematográfica de Un tranvía llamado Deseo (1951)”, 2 Revista Cine, Televisión y Derecho, pp. 18-33
2021	Parise, Agustín	“Notas sobre la ficción como herramienta para la enseñanza del derecho”, 7 Anamorphosis. Revista Internacional de Direito e Literatura, pp. 355-374
04.12.2020	Parise, Agustín	“`¿Has oído hablar del Código Napoleón?´ Codificación y acceso a justicia en la adaptación cinematográfica de Un tranvía llamado Deseo (1951)”, II Encuentro Internacional sobre Cine, Series y Derecho, Universidad de Chile (Santiago, Chile)
27.10.2020	Parise, Agustín	“Resilience of Law and Society: Current Takeaways from Defoe's 1772 Journal of the Plague Year”, Law Talks Series, Maastricht University (Maastricht, The Netherlands)
01.08.2020	Parise, Agustín	“`Todo el mundo estaba en paz; no había trabajo para los hombres de leyes:´ La omnipresencia del derecho en El Diario del Año de la Peste (1722) de Daniel Defoe”, VIEncuentro Internacional Ficción y Derecho, Facultad de Derecho, Universidad de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
18.06.2020	Willemse, Arthur	“Judgement in Regina Ullmann’s The Country Road and Franz Kafka’s The Trial”, Roundtable on Law and Popular Culture II, Maastricht University (Maastricht, The Netherlands)
01.06.2020	Parise, Agustín	“An Open Laboratory for Characters and Scenarios! The Value of Law and Literature in a PBL Environment”, Maastricht University Faculty of Law Blogs, available at https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/blog/2020/06/open-laboratory-characters-and-scenarios
2020	Visconti, Arianna	"Venti di tempesta e foreste del diritto. Il discorso della legge come argine alla sopraffazione delle narrative emergenziali", in Forti G. (a cura di), Le regole e la vita. Del buon uso di una crisi, tra letteratura e diritto, Vita e Pensiero, Milano, e-book, pp. 55-63
2020	Visconti, Arianna	"Alcune considerazioni criminologiche e politico-criminali sulle c.d. fake news", in Jus, 2020/1, pp. 43-71.
27.07.2019	Parise, Agustín	“John H. Wigmore, 100 clásicos y novelas jurídicas hispanas”, VEncuentro Internacional Ficción y Derecho, Facultad de Derecho, Universidad de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
18.04.2019	Parise, Agustín	“John H. Wigmore (1863-1943) and Ignacio Winizky (1910-1988): Drawing Pan-American Parallels on the Origins of the Law and Literature Movement”, Roundtable on Law and Popular Culture, Maastricht University (Maastricht, The Netherlands)
2019	Visconti, Arianna	"La «pazienza della terra»: dai percorsi di dominio all'incontro nel cammino. Viaggio letterario nel diritto del patrimonio culturale", in Jus OnLine, 2019/2, pp. 156-202.
2019	Visconti, Arianna	Voce "Giustizia penale e letteratura", in Diritto Online Approfondimenti Enciclopedici, Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana Giovanni Treccani, Roma.
29.07.2017	Parise, Agustín	“Ius Commune y la Vida de un Coloso: La Obra Teatral como Herramienta para la Enseñanza de la Historia del Derecho”, IIIEncuentro Internacional Ficción y Derecho, Facultad de Derecho, Universidad de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
2017	Visconti, Arianna	"A ‘Narrative’ of the Individual-Community Relationship through the ‘Lenses’ of Criminal Law: Three Sketches of Mystification", in Pólemos. Journal of Law, Literature and Culture, 2017/2, pp. 299-325
2017	Visconti, Arianna	"Memoria e comprensione dell’‘altro’ tra difesa sociale e garanzie individuali: la prospettiva giusletteraria per un diritto penale democratico", in Jus, 2017/1, pp. 35-81
2017	Visconti, Arianna	"Narrazioni di ingiustizia, giustizia come narrazione. L’esperienza sudafricana come “sperimentazione giusletteraria”", in G.L. Potestà - C. Mazzucato - A. Cattaneo (a cura di), Storie di giustizia riparativa. Il Sudafrica dall’apartheid alla riconciliazione, Il Mulino, Bologna, pp. 81-97
30.07.2016	Parise, Agustín	“La ficción como herramienta para la enseñanza del derecho: Escenarios ficticios, método socrático y aprendizaje basado en problemas”, II Encuentro Internacional Ficción y Derecho, Facultad de Derecho, Universidad de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
2016	Visconti, Arianna	"Narratività, narrazione, narrazioni: giustizia come ‘apertura’", in G. Forti - C. Mazzucato - A. Visconti (a cura di), Giustizia e letteratura III, Vita e Pensiero, Milano, 2016, pp. 2-49
2016	Visconti, Arianna	"Giudici ‘di carta’ e giudici ‘di ferro’. L’immagine della giustizia amministrata nella letteratura ottocentesca", in G. Forti - C. Mazzucato - A. Visconti (a cura di), Giustizia e letteratura III, Vita e Pensiero, Milano, pp. 228-259
01.08.2015	Parise, Agustín	“Los ‘Cuentos’ de los Hermanos Grimm: Un Crisol para el Derecho, la Historia y el Folklore”, I Encuentro Internacional Ficción y Derecho, Facultad de Derecho, Universidad de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
2014	Visconti, Arianna	"Precetto, valore, sanzione: categorie giuridiche ‘sotto processo’ in Melville", in G. Forti - C. Mazzucato - A. Visconti (a cura di), Giustizia e letteratura II, Vita e Pensiero, Milano, pp. 331-363
2014	Visconti, Arianna	"Streghe, avvelenatrici, assassine: donne a giudizio, tra stereotipi culturali e fallacie cognitive", in G. Forti - C. Mazzucato - A. Visconti (a cura di), Giustizia e letteratura II, Vita e Pensiero, Milano, pp. 387-427
2014	Visconti, Arianna	"Narrare per testimoniare, narrare per giudicare", in G. Forti - C. Mazzucato - A. Visconti (a cura di), Giustizia e letteratura II, Vita e Pensiero, Milano, pp. 616-621
2012	Visconti, Arianna	"«Stupidità del male» e «intelligenza delle emozioni»: compassione, pensiero e memoria come antidoti al male organizzato", in G. Forti - C. Mazzucato - A. Visconti (a cura di), Giustizia e letteratura I, Vita e Pensiero, Milano, pp. 368-397

Blogs

Solo l’Italia? Gabry Ponte’s Eurovision song underlines striking limitations to Italy’s effective control over its cultural heritage imagery

The staging of San Marino representative’s performance during Eurovision might be in violation of Italian cultural heritage law – yet, the principle of territoriality prevents Italy from taking effective legal action.

An Academic Game-Changer: Seeing Hugo Through a Modern Juridical Lens

On the 7th and 8th of May, 2025, the event “Hugo and the Law” was held at the Faculty of Law of Maastricht University. As a student in my second year of LL.B., I decided to participate, hoping to learn new philosophical ideas, especially seeing that professors and researchers from other countries would hold presentations.

In Algorithms We Trust? TikTok in the Digital Cold War

On the 3rd of February 2025, the Law & Popular Culture Research Network hosted the discussion panel “Whatever Happened to TikTok?”, aimed at diving into the current political and social developments around this platform. Moderator Livia Solaro welcomed experts Valentina Golunova, Jerry Spanakis, Konrad Kollnig, Monica Garcia-Salmones Rovira and Henrique Jerônimo Bezerra Marcos. Each speaker brought a different perspective with valuable insights into the current TikTok situation.

The Legal Philosophy of Role-Playing Games

In this blog, Michele Ubertone aims to show that the cognitive and rational skills that are involved in role-playing are also at the heart of legal practice. Cognitive developments we all go through in the early stages of our lives, train and develop a distinctive cognitive ability, a form of rationality that is intrinsic both to law and to literature.

AI generated image of a judge in a fantasy and real world

Academic Curiosity in the Realm of the Law

Legal science evolves in many ways. Academic curiosity is an important drive in that evolution, opening paths of exploration and igniting awareness on the needs of society. Curiosity–in all its forms–deals with exploring, discovering, and learning towards acquiring new knowledge. Its etymology relates to an interest in care (cura). Academic curiosity can take people to different places (in mind and body), exposing them to other cultures and ideas.

Eline Couperus mail	Agustín Parise mail
Livia Solaro mail	Arthur Willemse mail

Resident Members			Affiliated Members
Jochem van Atteveld	Syamsuriatina Binti Ishak	Lars van Vliet	Moramay Koomen	John Cotter
Konstantin Jänicke	Anna de Jong	Henrique Jerônimo Bezerra Marcos	Johanna Ritter	Arianna Visconti
Frank Nellen	Julieta Marotta	Paul Stewens	Sophia Zaka	Ted Laros
Karolina Podstawa	Emma Sanvito	Ann-Sophie Haspel	Remo Verdickt	Emma Patchett
Janneke Westra	Sarah Schoenmaekers	Jan Smits	Bianca Tîrnovan
Donna Yates	Paula Lozada Alfaro	Franco Peirone	Emily Sipiorski

20.06.2025 - Visconti, Arianna -"La ‘parola che taglia’: lo «haiku» come metafora della riflessione critica sul diritto e sulla Giustizia", in P. Bertelloni - G. Forti (a cura di), Haiku per la giustizia. Un modello di stile per ‘parole giuste’, Vita e Pensiero, Milano, pp. 3-24	14.02.2025 - Solaro, Livia & van Vliet, Lars - "Foreign Sovereign Immunity in the Altmann Case", ELSA Maastricht film screening 'Woman in Gold' with commentary and Q&A session, Maastricht University (Maastricht, The Netherlands).
23.05.2025 - Visconti, Arianna - "La donna come “outsider”. Oltre il totalitarismo di Gilead", in A. Musio (a cura di), Femminile, corpi e potere. Tre letture de “Il racconto dell'Ancella”, Mimesis, Milano-Udine, pp. 31-73	2025 - Visconti, Arianna - "Con quale viso ci staremmo a fronte?». Parola, silenzio, responsabilità, giudizio", in G. Donati - G. Forti - C. Mazzucato - A. Visconti (a cura di), L’esercizio del ‘giusto giudizio’. Dialoghi manzoniani sull'idea di responsabilità e i fondamenti della giustizia, Vita e Pensiero, Milano, pp. 43-93.
15.05.2025 - Solaro, Livia - "Furto al museo di Drents: proseguono le indagini tra tensioni diplomatiche e incertezze giuridiche", News-Art.	27.11.2024 - Parise, Agustín - “‘Hacemos las tortillas con maíz, no con paciencia’ La función social de la propiedad en ¡Viva Zapata! (1952)”, 6º Encuentro Internacional sobre Cine, Series y Derecho, Universidad de Chile (Santiago, Chile).
02.05.2025 - Jerônimo Bezerra Marcos, Henrique - "The US-China Mirror: TikTok, National Security, and Techno-Nationalism", Opinio Juris	13.11.2024 - Solaro, Livia - “Il museo etnografico di Ginevra riapre con una nuova missione di decolonizzazione”, Artribune.
01.04.2025 - Solaro, Livia & Jänicke, Konstantin - "Two Pieces of One Puzzle: Italy and Germany Clash Over the Transnational Reach of Cultural Heritage Law Encroaching Upon the Public Domain", Harvard International Law Journal, Online Scholarship	11.11.2024 - Solaro, Livia - “Case note: de Csepel v. Republic of Hungary [2024] 2024 WL 4345811 (United States District Court, District of Columbia)”, The Institute of Art and Law.

Law & Popular Culture Research Network

LPC-RN news

Visit the "Hugo and the Law" Book Exhibition (7 May - 19 September 2025)

Upcoming events

Members

Steering Committee

Members

Become a member

Pillars

Roundtable Series

Lecture Series

Law in Stories

Research Output

Latest research output

Blogs

Solo l’Italia? Gabry Ponte’s Eurovision song underlines striking limitations to Italy’s effective control over its cultural heritage imagery

An Academic Game-Changer: Seeing Hugo Through a Modern Juridical Lens

In Algorithms We Trust? TikTok in the Digital Cold War

The Legal Philosophy of Role-Playing Games

Academic Curiosity in the Realm of the Law

Previous events

Hugo and the Law

7 & 8 May 2025 @ Faculty of Law

Whatever happened to TikTok

3 February 2025 @ Faculty of Law

MACCH Spark Session with Gregory Zinman on Art in 1980s NYC Nightclubs

30 January 2025 @ Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Ius Commune Workshop: New Developments in Art Law

29 November 2024 @ Utrecht

Film screening from the Law and Art course: The Treasures of Crimea

11 November 2024 @ Maastricht University Faculty of Law

La Chimera + Panel discussion

7 May 2024 @ Lumière Cinema