Legal Spegal. We are readers too! I had an interesting (or interesting to me) conversation with a fellow law student, Ang, and I thought I would share. This a typical conversation concerning strange law school hypos mixed with book rhetoric.
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Ang: This sounds crazy but I have to ask. If one sells her soul to the devil in exchange for something...perhaps a fantastic talent, but later decides she wants her glittery boyfriend to turn her into a vampire, what happens to her soul when the exchange takes place?
Me: Wait. Do vampires not have souls because they live forever or is it a by product of being a vampire?
Ang: Well they are the walking undead.
Me: So are you asking does the Devil still have the soul or whether it disappears to wherever all the vampire souls disappear at the moment of change?
Ang: Well Yeah. I guess those are the options, but legally...
Me: Well, if her soul disappears, I think that might be fraud and the devil can take her ability/talent back which would suck because they'd be extra awesome as a vampire.
Ang: And there would be damages.
Me: Yeah I think so. But if the soullessness is a byproduct of the change maybe the devil can still have it and there are no damages unless the value of the soul is worth less because she is a vampire instead of a human. Then he just gets that value back.
Ang: But what if the difference is priceless?
Me: Well hell.
But no one should be able to sell their soul because it is like a liver. We don't sell body parts. That would be an invalid contract.
Ang: Yeah but you can give it away.
Me: But if you give a kidney away in exchange for a car it's still selling it. So you can't give away your soul for a talent.
Ang: But maybe we can compare it to surrogacy and adoption. You can't sell a baby but you can sell the work/rent out the womb.
Me: Yeah but even then the distinction is weird. The adoption/surrogacy comparison barely works on its own. It's like the difference between planning and an accidental pregnancy. If it is an accident you have to go the adoption route. If you can plan it, you can contract it.
Ang: Here you go.
Me: Fine. But I don't see how the comparison works.
Ang: We can make it work. Maybe. We just have to get around the Statute of Frauds.
Me: Well we would just have it in writing.
Ang: And all those young people couldn't become vampires [because they are less than 18].
Me: They could become vampires. They just couldn't sell their souls.
THE END
Do you find yourself mixing reality and books together? Tell me about it. Does it work? Do you even think before you do it? I assume that EVERYONE knows how Edward and Jacob is. If someone doesn't know I'm just kind of like..."and you call yourself smart." lol. I'm kidding...maybe. Books are my reality. What about you?
