Event overview
Dr Awol Allo (LSE)
Normative theories of law conceive the courtroom as a Euclidean space – a physically fixed, dialectically neutral, and transparent space – designed for a rational and orderly adjudication of social conflicts in the realm of reason and the ideal. Against this strongly normative understanding of the juridical space, the paper argues that the legal space is heterogeneous and multiplicitous – material and abstract, relational and absolute, real and imagined, enabled and enabling, generated and generative. Far from being a neutral Euclidean void in which trials are conducted and guilt and innocence determined, the courtroom is a generative spatial configuration that exerts its own agency. Drawing on recent theoretical interrogations into space and spatiality, the paper argues that a strategic and spatial orientation towards the trial can create opportunities for imaginative interventions. Finally, through an analysis of few scenes from Nelson Mandela’s spectacular performance of resistance before Apartheid courts, it will attempt to show how resistance infiltrates the hegemonic and fortified spaces of the courtroom to activate a micro-politics of resistance.
Dr Awol Allo is LSE Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Human Rights, LSE. This talk will draw on themes developed in his edited book, The Courtroom as a Space of Resistance: Reflections on the Legacy of the Rivonia Trial (Ashgate, 2015).
A Seminar organised by the Unit of Global Justice, Department of Sociology
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Oct 2015 | 5:00pm - 6:30pm |
Accessibility
If you are attending an event and need the College to help with any mobility requirements you may have, please contact the event organiser in advance to ensure we can accommodate your needs.
