Matthias Baier

A visual self-image of legal authority: 'The temple of law'

The focus of this article is on the legal profession’s visual self-image of legal authority. It takes a departure from the themes of visual legal communication and discusses the relationship between text and pictures in the legal domain. The discussion concludes with a reflection on the consequences of the modern pictorial evolution. Bearing this discussion in mind, will the development of the ICT society (information and communication technology) impose new demands on the legal system, or will the law resist the sensuality of the pictorial turn? By describing and analysing 254 photographs produced by The Swedish National Court Administration (Domstolsverket), the analysis will indicate that the internal visual self-image conveyed by the photographs supports and maintains the law’s stability and consistency.

Law and participation

The main problem discussed in this paper is that the legal system might be dysfunctional to various political participatory ambitions. Participation implies inclusion, but we see examples of exclusion that originate from internal operations of the legal system. Considering the many instances of participatory instruments embedded in legal frameworks in many sectors of society, it is important to ask what kind of problems the law might cause and the reasons behind these problems. With environmental law and regulation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), as examples, this essay analyses the paradoxical tendencies of the legal system to exclude citizens even when regulations have the purpose of including them. The scientific residence of this essay is sociology of law. (Less)