Law and the Image: The Authority of Art and the Aesthetics of Law

This collection brings together some of the important minds in both contemporary art history and theory, and law and legal history. The result is a discussion of the diverse relationships between law and the artistic image. The essays draw on the critical procedures of law, art history and cultural studies in order to create an interdisciplinary field of visual culture and law. In exploring the hidden interdependence of law and art, the writings refute the generally held conception that law is fixed and rational while the judgement of art is autonomous and ambiguous. Among the topics addressed are the history of the relationship between art and law, the ways in which the visual is made subject to the force of the law, and the complex relations between law, the image and identity.