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9 ESLJ [1] (2011)

handle is hein.journals/entersport9 and id is 1 raw text is: In this article I will first argue that the two television series 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' (hereafter BtVS) and its spinoff series 'Angel' both contain an account of the place of law and legal institutions in society. However, whilst one series, BtVS, takes a mainly positive attitude towards law, the central characters usually seeking to live lawfully, 'Angel' shows those involved in the law to be, at best, morally flawed and the main character, Angel, consistently rejects the idea that any kind of law should determine his behaviour. If this is so, this appears to create a serious problem for the academic analysis of ideas about law in such programmes. The initial broadcasting of the two series overlaps. One man, Joss Whedon, is usually credited with the creation of both of the series. Given this, the utility of examining conceptions of law and legal institutions in programmes such as these might then seem to be put in doubt. Two different accounts of law and legal institutions produced at much the same time by the same person seems to emphasise the pure fictionality of the series. Interrogating the ideas and arguments in the series ignores the fact that they say radically different things at the same time. Why look at what the series and thus Whedon says about law and legal institutions in the two series, given the fact that Whedon seems to feel free to say anything that he chooses on an almost random basis? In the final part of this article I will show why, notwithstanding their contradictory nature, both accounts of law still deserve attention within the academy. Conceptions of Law, Legal Institutions, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel The television series BtVS consists of 144 episodes that were first broadcast in the USA 1 between 10 March 1997 and 20 May 2003. 'Angel' consists of 110 episodes that were first broadcast in the USA between October 5 1999 and 19 May 2004. Both series are now being continued as graphic novels with 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Long Way Home' (2007) being the first novel for BtVS and 'Angel: After the Fall' (2009) being the first novel for 'Angel'. Some of these novels have themselves been the subject of academic analysis (Abbott, 2010). However this article will just consider the television series. Both TV series are available as videos and on DVD. The scripts to the programmes can be found on a number of web-sites such as 'Buffy vs Angel' <htt :/ww .uf-vs-anae .com/au de.s Joss Whedon neither wrote all of the episodes for either television series nor did he direct 2 every episode htt/o .htm. However, Whedon was responsible for the initial conception of both series, was heavily involved in writing and directing them and had final responsibility for determining their content. Because of the control that he exercised over the television series most commentators have treated the programmes as being largely the work of Whedon (Lavery, 2004; Lavery, 2002);he is for Comeford and Burnett the series' 'author/auteur' (Comeford and Burnett, 2010, p.3). Not all academic accepts this approach. Robert Loftis, for example, has argued that analysis of ' Angel' and BtVS should 'honor the collaborative nature of television by focusing on the collective author of Buffy, which includes, but is not limited to Whedon, the writers, the designers, and the cast' (Robert Loftis, 2007, para.6); Williamson takes a similar view (Williamson, 2005, p.77). This alternative approach raises issues that are similar to criticism of auteur theory in film studies, where directors are treated as the sole creators of their films (see, for example, Sarris, 1996 and Watson, 2003, pp.134-138). It is clear that one cannot for all purposes treat television programmes or films, as being the work of just one person in

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