%20(1).jpg)
Law on Film
Law on Film explores the rich connections between law and film. Law is critical to many films, even to those that are not obviously about the legal world. Film, meanwhile, tells us a lot about the law, especially how it is perceived and portrayed. The podcast is created and hosted by Jonathan Hafetz, a lawyer, legal scholar, and film buff. Each episode, Jonathan and a guest expert will examine a film that is noteworthy from a legal perspective. What does the film get right about the law and what does it get wrong? Why is law important to understanding the film? And what does the film teach about law's relationship to the larger society and culture that surrounds it. Whether you're interested in law, film, or an entertaining discussion, there will be something here for you.
Law on Film
Syriana (2005) (Guest: Peggy McGuinness) (episode 40)
Syriana is a 2005 geopolitical thriller written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, based loosely on former CIA case officer Robert Baer’s memoir, See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism. The film weaves together multiple storylines that involve a CIA agent, a U.S. energy analyst, a major transnational law firm, and an oil-rich Persian Gulf kingdom. It tackles complex themes of corruption, power, and terrorism from a distinctly post-9/11 vantage point. The film also suggests how law operates in transnational settings and how it seeks—but often fails—to tame the forces of ambition, greed, and power that drive the oil industry and America’s role in it. Joining me to talk about Syriana is Margaret (Peggy) McGuinness, a professor at St. John’s University School of Law and a leading scholar of international law.
Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
3:00 The context and setting
5:24 The film’s multiple storylines
8:28 Former CIA agent Robert Baer and the George Clooney character
19:22 Capital markets and energy derivatives
25:26 Big oil in the early 2000s and today
28:28 Big law and the Jeffrey Wright character
33:43 DOJ’s investigation
37:14 The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
42:40 The illusion of due diligence
47:40 Radicalization
53:06 Gulf monarchs
55:10 Targeted assassinations
1:01:14 The next movie: big tech and AI
1:01:52 The outcome
Further reading:
Alyson, Brusie et al., “Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,” 61 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 713 (2024)
Baer, Robert, See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism (Crown, 2003)
Cohen, Kfir, “Narrating the global: pedagogy and disorientation in ‘Syriana,’” Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media
Lewis, R. James & Awan, Akil N. eds. Radicalization: A Global and Comparative Perspective (Oxford Univ. Press, 2024)
Stiglitz, Jospeh E., Globalization and Its Discontents (W. W. Norton & Co. 2002)
Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember.
For more information about Jonathan, here's a link to his bio: https://law.shu.edu/profiles/hafetzjo.html
You can contact him at jonathanhafetz@gmail.com
You can follow him on X (Twitter) @jonathanhafetz
You can follow the podcast on X (Twitter) @LawOnFilm
You can follow the podcast on Instagram @lawonfilmpodcast