Monkey Business in a Kangaroo Court: Reimagining Naruto v. Slater as a Litigious Event

S. Marek Muller

doi:10.14321/rhetpublaffa.25.1.0031

Rhetoric & Public Affairs Mar 2022

Monkey Business in a Kangaroo Court: Reimagining Naruto v. Slater as a Litigious Event

S. Marek Muller

Abstract

Abstract This essay performs a critical rhetorical analysis of out-of-court texts pertaining to Naruto v. Slater, colloquially known as the “Monkey Selfie Lawsuit.” By veering from a legal positivist perspective on law and turning toward theories of the public screen, it argues that while People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) formally lost its case on appeal, it successfully litigated their case in the court of public opinion. It further offers the concept of the “litigious event”—a staged lawsuit designed for mass media dissemination—to explain my perspective. By latching onto the already-viral monkey selfies at the center of the copyright dispute, PETA took advantage of the public screen by bringing a private, logocentric civil suit into a public, image-based digital sphere. Increased coverage of the case allowed PETA's legal team to harness the power of digital media to disseminate important arguments about legal rights for animals. Naruto v. Slater functioned as a trial for media, as a strategic lawsuit for public participation—in other words, as a strategically sound and rhetorically powerful litigious event.

Journal: Rhetoric & Public Affairs
Published: 2022-03-01
DOI: 10.14321/rhetpublaffa.25.1.0031
CompPile
Open Access: Closed
Topics: rhetorical criticism
Export: BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (0)

No references on file for this article.

CrossRef global citation count: 1 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Monkey Business in a Kangaroo Court: Reimagining Naruto v. Slater as a Litigious Event

Abstract

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

References (0)

Related Articles