This book is the first to approach Jacques Ranciere's work from a legal perspective. A former student of Louis Althusser, Ranciere is one of the most important contemporary French philosophers of recent decades: offering an original and path-breaking way to think politics, democracy and aesthetics. Ranciere's work has received wide and increasing critical attention, but no study exists so far that reflects on the wider implications of Ranciere for law and for socio-legal studies. Although Ranciere does not pay much specific attention to law-and there is a strong temptation to identify law with what he terms the "police order"-much of Ranciere's historical work highlights the creative potential of law and legal language, with important legal implications and ramifications. So, rather than excavate the Rancierean corpus for isolated statements about the law, this volume reverses such a method and asks: what would a Ranciere-inspired legal theory look like? Bringing together specialists and scholars in different areas of law, critical theory and philosophy, this rethinking of law and socio-legal studies through Ranciere provides an original and important engagement with a range of contemporary legal topics, including constituent power and democracy, legal subjectivity, human rights, practices of adjudication, refugees, the nomos of modernity, and the sensory configurations of law. It will, then, be of considerable interest to those working in these areas.

This book is the first to approach Jacques Ranciere's work from a legal perspective. A former student of Louis Althusser, Ranciere is one of the most important contemporary French philosophers of recent decades: offering an original and path-breaking way to think politics, democracy and aesthetics. Ranciere's work has received wide and increasing critical attention, but no study exists so far that reflects on the wider implications of Ranciere for law and for socio-legal studies. Although Ranciere does not pay much specific attention to law-and there is a strong temptation to identify law with what he terms the "police order"-much of Ranciere's historical work highlights the creative potential of law and legal language, with important legal implications and ramifications. So, rather than excavate the Rancierean corpus for isolated statements about the law, this volume reverses such a method and asks: what would a Ranciere-inspired legal theory look like? Bringing together specialists and scholars in different areas of law, critical theory and philosophy, this rethinking of law and socio-legal studies through Ranciere provides an original and important engagement with a range of contemporary legal topics, including constituent power and democracy, legal subjectivity, human rights, practices of adjudication, refugees, the nomos of modernity, and the sensory configurations of law. It will, then, be of considerable interest to those working in these areas.

Sensing Justice examines the aesthetic frames that mediate the sensory perception and signification of law and justice in the context of twenty-first-century Spain. What senses do these frames privilege or downgrade? What kind of subjects do they show, construct, and address? What kind of affective and ethical responses do they invite? What kind of judgments do they invite? The book addresses these questions by moving away from the focus on narrative and through a close analysis of selected contemporary Spanish films such as Pan's Labyrinth, High Heels, Common Wealth, The Method, No Rest for the Wicked and Unit 7. By creating new frames of perception and signification, the films analyzed challenge the senses of law and justice traditionally taken for granted and reconfigure them anew. Engaging with legal theory, film studies, aesthetics, and politics, Sensing Justice provides a compelling illustration of how law and justice are multisensory and embodied experiences.

Explores the aesthetic frames that mediate the sense(s) and experiences of justice Close analysis of films such as Pan's Labyrinth, High Heels, Common Wealth, The Method, No Rest for the Wicked, Unit 7 Engages with legal theory, film studies, aesthetics, and politics Approaches law and film as multisensory, embodied practices Draws on European case studies in a field largely dominated by Anglo-American discourse Sensing Justice examines the aesthetic frames that mediate the sensory perception and signification of law and justice in the context of 21st century Spain. What senses do these frames privilege or downgrade? What kind of subjects do they show, construct, and address? What kind of affective and ethical responses do they invite? What kind of judgments do they invite? The book addresses these questions by moving away from the focus on narrative and through a close analysis of selected contemporary Spanish films--such as Pan's Labyrinth, High Heels, Common Wealth, The Method, No Rest for the Wicked, Unit 7. By creating new frames of perception and signification, the films analyzed challenge the senses of law and justice traditionally taken for granted and reconfigure them anew. Engaging with legal theory, film studies, aesthetics, and politics, Sensing Justice provides a compelling illustration of how law and justice are multisensory and embodied experiences.