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All Zeehs Things

A tribute to our beloved Aunt: Zombies and the Law

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Hello and welcome again to my WA-blog about All Zeehs Things.



During my preparations for this article something weird happened on the forum: CabbagePatch raised a couple of questions in the topic about Zombies and Canada on the forum which actually partially falls into what I was going to write about in this article. This is, what Cabbage wrote:

Quote Originally Posted by Cabbage Patch View Post
I think the key to getting the government to respond to a brewing zombie crisis is to tap into the things that are important to the government. For instance, are zombies still citizens? If so can they vote, and does their transformation effect their party affiliation? What social services do zombies qualify for? Is their a need to establish undead affirmative action and hiring quotas? Do they still have to pay taxes? Can the government confiscate their investments and property in lieu of direct payment of taxes? Could the zombies be some form of Islamic, or worse, Christian fundamentalists?
As it turns out the web is full of blogs or articles which raise different questions regarding the legal situation for Zombies.



The first one I highly recommend reading is the thesis on "Death and Taxes and Zombies" provided by Adam Chodorow. The link, which I put under the title of his thesis, leads you to his paper, which is about 25 pages long. The first half covers legal issues on zombies, the second half on vampires and ghosts. Now, ghosts and vampires are bogus and spawns from the D&D monstrous manual, while zombies are REAL! You know that as much as I do, which is why the first half of Chodorow's paper is much more interesting.

In this paper he first gives an overview about various types of zombies and the different sources which are to be considered as the roots for zombies. He then leads over to a very focussed view on law and especially taxes and zombies; doing so he admits that it is pretty challenging to get into a broader perception of zombies and their relation to law or legal matters. More interestingly, though, is the spoilered result of Chodorow's work: Zombies, at least the ones which never died as humans and thus remain human beings to some degree, are bound to pay taxes. The question about how to enforce tax-regulation on zombies is something Chodorow leaves open, though.

If you don't want to read the paper provided by Chodorow, then check this Forbes-article by Peter J. Reilly from March 2012.



Since this was only about a particular legal question, you might wish to learn more about zombies and law in general ... or better: zombies and legal questions.

I don't know, if this is going to enlighten you much, but there is this Joshua Warren from New York. And in October 2012 he had a small and in the end successfull Kickstarter Crowdfunding Campagin running. He raised a couple of thousand USD in order to produce a certain book he wishes to see published. And the title for it will be nothing else but this: Zombie Law (link to the Kickstarter page unter the title). This book will be about "Zombies in the Federal Court", and in this case-book Mr Warren will inform you about certain procedures in front of the Federal Court in which "zombies" or the term "zombie" played a role - well, more or less.

Besides this Kickstarter Campaign there is also the rather lively Zombie-Law-Blog. On this blog the blogger (Mr Joshua Warren?) posts many, many, many articles regarding zombies and all kinds of topics - not only legal topics. But from what I understand here, since this blog documents the development of the above-mentioned book to some degree, this is probably the main source to stay up-dated about what is going on and when this book will be available. Maybe it is something you wish to own sooner or later ...

It is quite interesting to see that not only does Joshua Warren care about zombies and law, but also Kirsten Thompson from Canada. It might be a coincidence (or not): But at about the time of Mr Warren's Kickstarter Campaign Ms Thompson published an article on 31st October 2012 about Zombie Law, i.e. Zombies and the Canadaian jurisprudence: A Halloween special on zombie law.



Now, you may wonder: Ok, here we are - two sources about zombies and law. But what would happen, if lawyers would have to deal with zombies?
From Kelly we already know that the skills and qualitites of a lawyer used against zombies are somewhat ... How should I put it ... ? Limited. I think that's fair enough. A more thorough answer to that question is provided by Joe Patrice on his article "How Lawyers Would Botch The Zombie Apocalypse" from 31st Cotober, 2012. This article does not go very deep, but I think you'll get the picture being drawn ...



I hope you enjoyed this article. If you like to leave comments, feel free to do so or discuss it on the forum. Maybe you know of some special sources or articles to think about ... Go ahead, point me and us towards it ...

All the best!
Liam
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Updated Feb 21st, 2013 at 10:55 PM by LiamKerrington

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Comments

  1. Osiris's Avatar
    You've got an orphaned [/tab] that needs to be addressed. Good read though!
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  2. scbubba's Avatar
    Very nice, my friend. I had no idea the was such a well covered domain....
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  3. LiamKerrington's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Osiris
    You've got an orphaned [/tab] that needs to be addressed. Good read though!

    Thank you very much! I took care of it.
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  4. LiamKerrington's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by scbubba
    Very nice, my friend. I had no idea the was such a well covered domain....
    I was surprised myself. The last time I was on this topic - that was in summer last year - there was not so much available. I think this "Zombie Law"-book put some inertia to this topic. I am pretty excited about it, and I think I will get it.

    IN all honesty, though: I believe this will be not so much about zombies addressed by law, but more about zombies being part of legal arguments ...

    All the best!
    Liam
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  5. scbubba's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by LiamKerrington
    I was surprised myself. The last time I was on this topic - that was in summer last year - there was not so much available. I think this "Zombie Law"-book put some inertia to this topic. I am pretty excited about it, and I think I will get it.

    IN all honesty, though: I believe this will be not so much about zombies addressed by law, but more about zombies being part of legal arguments ...

    All the best!
    Liam
    I wonder if we will see people start invoking some sort of "temporary zombie defense" to rationalize their actions.... May be too soon for that but I could see somebody trying it.
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