Mignanelli on Whether Satan Is a Transactions Attorney @nmignanelli

Nicholas Mignanelli, University of Miami School of Law, has published Is Satan a Transactions Attorney? An Account of Satanic Imagery in Law and Literature. Here is the abstract.

What can the history of satanic imagery in law and literature teach us about the development of humanity’s understanding of its relationship with evil? This wide-ranging account of Satan’s presence across textual mediums uncovers the secret genealogy of contracts with Satan, from the Gospel of Matthew to Mayo v. Satan and His Staff (1971). This ironic lineage recounts how a Christian clergyman was the first to consummate a contract with Satan, how Martin Luther was the first to link Johann Faust to Satan, and how the poet who inspired Charlie Daniel’s “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” was the first to imagine an attorney litigating against Satan. Yet, these ironies are not so significant as the moral innovations that each stage in the evolution of the diabolical contract motif represents.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Brings to mind The Devil's Advocate by Andrew Neiderman (made into the 1997 film with Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves) and Mark Twain's The Mysterious Stranger (various editions, on which Kevin Malone based his opera Mysterious 44).