Paolo Heritier

Law and Image: Towards a Theory of Nomograms

Contemporary legal theory cannot be referred solely to the concepts of text and norm, but must take into account the connection between image and law. One of the most interesting contemporary contributions to the study of the relationship between myth, image, history and law is Legendre’s analysis of emblem theory. He identifies a single mechanism of legitimation of power – from Roman Empire to globalisation – the dimension of the Third (Tiers). It is a structural anthropological device on which the Western concept of power and law is founded that brings together different concepts such as God, state, democracy, science and the market and places them in a single legendary fictional place, visually perceptible on the aesthetic plane of representation. This chapter analyses the historical and philosophical elements of this conceptual framework, showing both application to the fields of marketing and advertising (the communicative strategies of multinational car companies such as Fiat Chrysler) and also implications for hermeneutics and aesthetics (the analysis of the painting by Piero della Francesca The Flagellation). The final aim of this chapter is to begin to develop a theory of legal sources suitable for the contemporary society of the image moving from the idea of nomogram designed as the unifier tool of the written and unwritten forms of the law.