The Docket – Episode 15: Star Wars and the Law with Gib Van Ert
By Star Wars and the law I mean mostly Star Wars. This week I sat down with Gib Van Ert executive legal officer of the Supreme Court of Canada to talk about a small motion picture – Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Ya it is the clickbait-iest episode ever.
There is actually no better way to combine Star Wars and law than speaking with Gib.
Gib is a brilliant legal mind. In August he took a leave from Hunter Litigation Chambers to serve as Executive Legal Officer to the Chief Justice of Canada.
At Hunter Litigation Chambers Gib praticed a broad range of civil litigation including commercial, real estate, environmental, administrative and public law matters. He regularly appear as counsel in cases before the Supreme Court of British Columbia and the BC Court of Appeal. He also acted in private arbitrations and has appeared as counsel in cases before the Supreme Court of Canada and the Federal Court of Appeal. In addition to his day-to-day practice, he is a well-known Canadian writer and speaker on international and constitutional law topics……
Ya, but most importantly he wrote a book about Star Wars. Here are some words about the book I plagiarized from amazon:
Some time in the summer of 1977, sitting in the back seat of a borrowed station wagon at the only drive-in in town, Gib van Ert saw the first ninety minutes of a film that changed his world—and the world in general—forever. Then he fell asleep. So began a torrid thirty-five-year love affair with Star Wars, complete with infatuation, lust, devotion, jealousy, betrayal, despair, separation and reconciliation. In A Long Time Ago: Growing Up With And Out Of Star Wars, van Ert describes how Star Wars captivated his imagination as a boy, broke his heart as a young man, and is foisting itself upon him again today through fatherhood. At once a personal memoir and a reflection on the shared experience of a generation, A Long Time Ago explores Star Wars fandom with equal parts humour and thoughtfulness, nostalgia and regret.
“A Long Time Ago is a thoughtful, funny, and beautifully written story… scathingly hilarious and bang on…. rewards the reader with an echo of the excitement, disappointment, anger, delight, and, ultimately, love, that Van Ert feels for the franchise.” – Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing
“A Long Time Ago is a wonderful look back on growing up with Star Wars…Van Ert [has] written a great little memoir about life as a boy with Star Wars and his trials as an adult with his boyhood fascination.” – Wired.com
Yep – I am a huge fan. So huge that as a 5 year old kid I bought Squid Face – seriously – of all the characters – Squid Face.
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