Legal Emblems and the Art of Law

Abstract

The emblem book was invented by the humanist lawyer Andrea Alciato in 1531. The preponderance of juridical and normative themes, of images of rule and infraction, of obedience and error in the emblem books is critical to their purpose and interest. This book outlines the history of the emblem tradition as a juridical genre, along with the concept of, and training in, obiter depicta, in things seen along the way to judgment. It argues that these books depict norms and abuses in classically derived forms that become the visual standards of governance. Despite the plethora of vivid figures and virtual symbols that define and transmit law, contemporary lawyers are not trained in the critical apprehension of the visible. This book is the first to reconstruct the history of the emblem tradition, evidencing the extent to which a gallery of images of law already exists and structuring how the public realm is displayed, made present and viewed.

14. What Authorizes the Image? The Visual Economy of Post-Secular Jurisprudence

“…We can see this is so when we consider the genealogy of law's legitimation over time. For example, it was the visual economy of the Incarnation -that phantasmal presence in the imperial coin (the emperor in the image of Christ),2 1 the Orthodox icon, 22 the king's two bodies,2 3 and the legal emblem 24 -that once authorized law's worldly power, "making power visible," 25 giving proof to its invisible spiritual source. 26 In the pre-and early modern visual economy of the living icon the image precedes the word.…”

“…27 As Goodrich points out, the tripartite structure of the legal emblem recapitulates the threefold unity of the Incarnation, the image made flesh. 28 But over time, what began as a transcendental, symbolic visual economy devolved into something far different: a secular legal positivism, the modern semiotic economy of signs and definitions.…”

The Metastases of Myth: Legal Images as Transitional Phenomena

“…Under the pressures of legal modernity noted above, the trope of divine light, together with its emotional power and its cosmic resonances, did not disappear (see Goodrich 2014;Stolleis 2004). It too metastasized, the same signifier eliding a radical transformation.…”

“…The image of the sun does not manifest what the sovereign 9 See also Durer's image of Apollo (1502), and of Resurrection (1497). 10 Examples discussed in Goodrich (2014) Henkel and Schone (1967). 'is' but describes what he 'is like'.…”

Jurisprudences of Jurisdiction: Matters of Public Authority

“…3 Peter Goodrich's consideration of the office of the jurist places emphasis on relating jurisdiction to other legal devices or modes of establishing the conduct of lawful relations. Goodrich, for example, argues that jurisdictional forms are best engaged by addressing the visible and licit forms of representing relations of authority (Goodrich, 2014). For Goodrich, Bartolus' work as a jurist should not be addressed solely through an emphasis on the forms of political authority made available to Empire and City, but should 8 In drawing apart the concerns of jurisdiction, public authority and state sovereignty, we note both the plurality of the forms of jurisdictional arrangement and practice and the juristic concern with a plurality of jurisdictional forms and devices of authority.…”