Campus Chronicle

Issue date: 2/13/04 Section: Wine & Cheese

Lorne is pure demon, but he´s hardly evil.

Is it ethical to use a super laser to kill the leader of a cult in order to prevent factions of a warring demon clan from uniting and terrorizing people? If you discover that an employee has betrayed you, should you feed him to a secret werewolf-eating society? If the head of their enforcement division ignores orders, is it acceptable to blow his head off with a shotgun?

These are just some of the questions faced by the heads of the fictional law firm Wolfram & Hart. This firm exists on Angel, a show that unexpectedly has become one of television's newest legal dramas.

Angel is not a legal drama in a strict sense, and Wolfram & Hart is not a typical law firm. It is distinguished by the fact that it is an evil law firm that represents terrorists, murderers and other criminals, and which has served as the characters' chief antagonist for the first four seasons. Angel (David Boreanaz) and his disciples gained control of the law firm as a reward for killing off one of the firm's ambiguously evil enemies at the end of last season.

As a result of this new setting, the show has introduced issues of race in the law. Instead of differences based on skin color or ethnicity, individuals that belong to actual different species provide conflict and drama. Vampires and demons frequent the show. Beyond that, the Angel universe is inhabited by all manner of creatures. Even the firm's senior partners are not human; one is an evil panther.

Are the otherworldly characters on Angel deserving of the same legal rights as humans? According to Angel, the concepts of demon rights and equality for all species are important. Sure, many of them would as soon seek redress through gratuitous violence as through legal means, but that doesn't mean that the question is so cut and dry.

These characters have much in common with humans. They, like many law school students, prefer to spend lots of time in bars. Many humans like to sing, just as demon Lorne (Andy Hallett) does. The blood-drinking vampires may be hard to get around, but they at least look human. All people have faults - if they don't kill people, they might just as easily engage in some other form of unethical behavior. And the humans on the show are just as likely to commit crimes.

The people in Angel's world get legal benefits; why shouldn't demons?

Some people might greet this modest proposal with skepticism. After all, even in the show's fictional universe, isn't the idea of giving legal rights to inhuman creatures just, well, stupid? No. For one, they act like regular people - at times, anyway. Some can even pass for human ... on Halloween. The question of whether these creatures can function in society is easy to answer. They, unlike most animals, appear to possess the same intelligence as humans. Half of Angel's storylines involve creatures carrying out intricate (and confusing) plots to destroy the world. Also, even the least intelligent of them, such as ditzy vampire Harmony (Mercedes McNab), do not appear to be any less capable than some of the least intelligent of the regular population.

If Harmony can manage to purchase a camel for a tribal summit, doesn't she at least deserve equal rights?

I recognize that the issue of citizenship would come up, but that's not really a problem, either. Granted, most governmental bodies in Angel's world aren't even aware that these creatures exist. On the other hand, many were born (or hatched, or killed and turned into vampires) in the United States, and others have been in the country for so long that they could qualify for amnesty for illegal immigrants. Angel, for one, has lived in the country for almost 100 years. Others have been around for millennia. They could easily pass citizenship tests, if they were allowed to take them.

I recognize that this is all fictional, but it's on television, a medium that Bart Simpson noted does a better job parenting than Homer. We shouldn't discount the importance of issues just because they affect no actual people. Now, in reality (or fantasy, as it were), the above proposal would not serve Angel or his friends well. Changing the legal system to include all of these new beings would likely divert Angel from his mission to help people and redeem himself after having killed countless people himself over the centuries. For that reason, it would be best to avoid enacting the above proposal right now. Eventually, though, those in Angel's world may have to revisit this issue.

Related Links:
Angel - The WB
All Things Philosophical on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: The Series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy - Amazon.com

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