Why can’t I marry my brother? Why is it impossible to be called Banana? How can you settle a conflict without fighting? Should I inquire before taking the train with my dog? Giving meaning to the law from an early age to facilitate understanding of the rules of life in society is the ambitious project of Marie Cresplecturer in private law at the University of Bordeaux Montaigne.
To position herself at the height of a child, she uses pedagogy and humor in the second volume of her comic strip “The law explained to children”, produced in collaboration with the illustrator Camouche and whose publication is scheduled for the fall. In October 2023, the first volume of this comic was made with illustrator Clara Lang. This teacher explains to 20 minutes why she wanted to tackle this subject, the jargon of which can even put off many adults.
Why did you want to decipher your discipline with a young readership?
I teach to an audience that is not a lawyer and from very different backgrounds, which implies a particular pedagogy. At first, I was a little disconcerted and afterwards I took great pleasure in it because it taught me to immediately show the interest of the law or the rule in general. I also measured the need for this teaching, what it implies not knowing the law, ignoring it or finding it inaccessible. And this can translate into a feeling of injustice that I have been able to perceive in my students. I also believe that there is a need to appease and understand when the news is crossed by social movements, attacks and incessant media debates. I said to myself that there was a lack and I wanted to take up this challenge. The idea was born around 2018 and it was during the confinement that I wrote the first version of the book.
Basically, what are your ambitions in this second part?
As in the first volume, the questions are also general because my goal is not to explain to them the rights of children, the family or road traffic but the system as a whole. For example, I go into the explanation of the different types of norms, their hierarchies, or even the role of constitutional control, without naming it as such. This completes the first questions (of the first volume) but we go a little further. The law is complicated, there are thousands of issues that contradict each other, that clash, but I am convinced that everything can be explained to everyone, even if in this specific context, I cannot address all the questions.
Why is it so important to grasp the basics?
I often tell my students that law is like transparent glass. One day you go walking and you bump into it and it’s all the more violent that you don’t see it. But beware, my goal is not to create a battalion of lawyers or to write a book glorifying the law. Besides, I also want to show its limits and failings. There is an example in the book, where Neymar wants to call his French-born son Jean. It’s a classic first name but at the same time it can be a painful pun for the child (Jean Neymar). This disconcerted many children (and adults) because the law does not decide, there is no answer given. It must be understood that we do not always have the answer in law. There are precise notions such as majority for example and vague notions such as the interest of the child, which will not be appreciated in the same way in Guéret by judge X or in Lille by judge Y.
How did you work on the accessibility of your work intended for children from the age of eight?
When writing, I always wonder what types of representations can emerge in a child’s head when we talk about abstract notions. To make the link with reality, we created, with the illustrators, two small characters, a wizard and a witch in the first comic strip and heroes related to space in the second. There are also dreamlike illustrations that make you think without being aware of it. And, to create an object that children love, we added a hidden monster that can be found with a small red bezel. I have learned since the release of the first volume that children under the age of eight enjoy having the book read to them.