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See You in Court (1). The American Genre Explosion from the Late 1980s

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The Legal Thriller from Gardner to Grisham

Part of the book series: Crime Files ((CF))

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Abstract

American court cases, whether real or fictitious, yield ample opportunity for drama, passion, and histrionics. This can be accounted for by (1) a mixture of an ingrained sense of law as an essential society dynamic taking direct democracy into legal as well as legislative and administrative spaces, (2) a strong belief since independence of the expediency of the law to settle conflicts of all kinds, (3) a legal tradition adopted from Britain based on common law, and (4) an accusatorial court culture and the traditional insistence on trial by jury.

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Sauerberg, L.O. (2016). See You in Court (1). The American Genre Explosion from the Late 1980s. In: The Legal Thriller from Gardner to Grisham. Crime Files. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40730-6_6

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