Cultural legal studies is a burgeoning field, encountering law and justice in relation to a wide variety of cultural and artistic forms. It engages not merely representations of law and justice, but the role that culture plays in constituting the very possibility of legality. The aim of this Handbook is to help consolidate this field and to invigorate its future development. It thus seeks contributions that work to situate cultural legal studies as a field, critically elaborate its methodologies, or that engage with cultural legal approaches to structure, affect, and form. The volume will provide not only a recognition of the significance of the cultural for understandings of law, but also a contribution to its ongoing viability as a potential site for justice, community, and sociality in the world today.
In line with this, we invite proposals that move within, beyond, or between these indicative trajectories:
- Cultural legal engagement with any of a diverse range of cultural forms
- e.g. books, theatre, film, painting, storytelling, photography, sculpture, food, comics, dance, songs, graffiti, music, play, video games, walking, music videos, etc.
- Cultural legal engagement with any of a diverse range of cultural sites or spaces
- e.g. courts, universities, housing estates, social media, playgrounds, outer space, borderlands, museums, virtual spaces, the wilderness, factories, parliaments, etc.
- Cultural legal engagement with, and from, any of a diverse range of legal traditions
- e.g. common law, civil law, international law, sharia law, indigenous legal orders, canon law, non-western law, comparative or plural laws, fictional law etc.
Chapter proposals are welcome that are within the scope of cultural legal studies as broadly understood above, including the role of the cultural legal within pedagogic contexts. The indicative bullet points are not intended to limit this scope in any way, but to indicate possible avenues of approach.
The Handbook will be a key reference point and site of animation both for those working in cultural legal contexts and others studying interactions between authority, culture, meaning, and related concerns. Chapters should thus orientate entry into the field for emerging scholars as well as being key reference points for more established academics. Importantly, we welcome chapters that are representative of the current state of this disciplinary area as well as those that are reflexive as to its methods, assumptions, limitations, and possible futures.
To submit a proposal, please send a title, 250 word abstract, and 3 keywords by 30 April 2020 to culturallegalstudies@gmail.com – if accepted, full drafts are expected by December 2020.