Mechanical Witness is the first cultural and legal history charting the changing role and theoretical implications of film and video use as courtroom evidence. Schwartz moves from the earliest employment of film in the courts of the 1920s to the notious 1991 Rodney Kind video, revealing how the courts have developed a reliance on film and video technologies and contributed to the growing influence of visual media as a dominant mode of knowledge formation. At the same time, film and video in juridical contexts has developed a distinct theoretical legacy. The particular qualities of film as evidence both resonate with and contradict existing scholarship-focusing on economic, social, or aesthetic factors-which hitherto has defined film's status and cultural contribution. In the context of a trial, the possible meanings of a film change from its meanings when shown in a movie theater or broadcast on television, yet the public (and cinema scholars) tend to assume that the two are the same. Mechanical Witness demonstrates that we must understand evidentiary film and video's institutional specificity if we are to understand the full effects of motion picture technologies on our culture. This study sets the terms for a long overdue assessment of how the entertainment industry has shaped our film viewing practices, the place of moving picture evidence in the courtroom, and the social and cultural consequences of these intertwined histories.

The evidential role of matter—when media records trace evidence of violence—explored through a series of cases drawn from Kosovo, Japan, Vietnam, and elsewhere. In this book, Susan Schuppli introduces a new operative concept: material witness, an exploration of the evidential role of matter as both registering external events and exposing the practices and procedures that enable matter to bear witness. Organized in the format of a trial, Material Witness moves through a series of cases that provide insight into the ways in which materials become contested agents of dispute around which stake holders gather. These cases include an extraordinary videotape documenting the massacre at Izbica, Kosovo, used as war crimes evidence against Slobodan Milošević; the telephonic transmission of an iconic photograph of a South Vietnamese girl fleeing an accidental napalm attack; radioactive contamination discovered in Canada's coastal waters five years after the accident at Fukushima Daiichi; and the ecological media or “disaster film” produced by the Deep Water Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Each highlights the degree to which a rearrangement of matter exposes the contingency of witnessing, raising questions about what can be known in relationship to that which is seen or sensed, about who or what is able to bestow meaning onto things, and about whose stories will be heeded or dismissed. An artist-researcher, Schuppli offers an analysis that merges her creative sensibility with a forensic imagination rich in technical detail. Her goal is to relink the material world and its affordances with the aesthetic, the juridical, and the political.

A proliferation of lawsuits involving sport utility vehicles, defective tires, medical devices and drugs, and asbestos abounds. Public attention to products liability cases is at an all-time high, and awards routinely run into the millions of dollars. When developing a strategy in this high stakes world, attorneys can't afford to have anything other than the best information and insight into this evolving area of law. Lawyers need practical tools to assess a products liability case's potential and build their approach, and Shapo on the Law of Products Liability provides the tools to give you the winning edge. Through a holistic analysis of the law and its principal developments as witnessed in hundreds of cases, this treatise gives litigators a wide variety of perspectives on potential strategies, and the tools to support those strategies with persuasive arguments. This authoritative two-volume work will enable you to: Assess products liability case potential and build sound litigation strategies Dig deep into products liability law to build creative approaches to litigation Craft a winning case and reap the greatest reward for your clients Find the tools and information to support strategies with persuasive arguments Both federal and state courts contribute a rich mix of decisions to products liability law, which covers both consumer products and occupational hazards. This indispensable resource for the products liability practitioner helps you prepare your case. Is the product defective? Who is liable? What is the manufacturer's responsibility? Who can be sued? What kind of awards may be realized? How might this be defended? Shapo on the Law of Products Liability also includes coverage of: Asbestos litigation Chinese drywall Food and drug Medical devices Design/manufacturing defects claims Punitive damages Discovery rule Up to date analysis and commentary History and background on products liability law Damages Advertising material Packaging Marshall S. Shapo, the Frederic P. Vose Professor at Northwestern University School of Law, is a nationally recognized authority on torts and products liability law.

Beginning with 1915 the Abstracts of decisions of the United States Customs court are included

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