Peter Goodrich looks beyond Judge Schreber's mental health to evaluate his jurisprudential theory. Goodrich analyses Schreber's Memoirs, interpreters and intellectual context to show how Schreber challenges the legal thought of his era and opens up a potentially vital approach to contemporary jurisprudence.

Through detailed readings of popular science fiction, including the novels of Frank Herbert and Octavia E. Butler and television's Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who, this is the first sustained examination of legality in science fiction.