1st Edition

Law, Spectacle, and the Play of Jurisdiction

By Frans-Willem Korsten Copyright 2026
312 Pages 13 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

312 Pages 13 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book offers a critical reconsideration of the theatrical nature of jurisdiction, as it examines how legal proceedings are regularly framed by or turned into a public spectacle. In legal cases, all those involved must play their parts, according to the rules, on a stage that is open to public scrutiny. As this book demonstrates, however, the affordances offered by new media, in a society... Read more

Chapter 1: Jurisdiction as an Object of Frivolity: Theatricality and Spectacle

Chapter 2: The Judiciary as Play and Rules of the Legal Game: Double Play, Staging, Scene, and the Role(s) of the Expert

Chapter 3: Besmirching Judges, Undermining Authority: Populists' Carnivalesque Play with Feelings of Law and Justice

Chapter 4: Unitarians Playing Games with Jurisdiction: Wager, Match, Chance, and the Myth of the One

Chapter 5: Intimidating Opponents: Corporations' Power Game Through Accusations of Defamation

Chapter 6: Judicial Façades: Jurisdiction as Horror Show, Puppet Theatre, and Inverted Zoo

Chapter 7: Metagaming and Fatiguing the Judiciary Through Acting in Bad Faith: Killjoy, Fool, Cheater, Spoilsport

Chapter 8: Emotionalization of the Judiciary: The Vulnerable Persona of the Judge Under a Spectacular Rule of Affect

Chapter 9: States and Corporations as Legal Figments – or Absurd Theatre: Urgenda, Greenpeace, and Milieudefensie Versus the Dutch State and Shell

Chapter 10: Postscript: Jurisdiction Spectacularized and the Need for a Revolution

Biography

Frans-Willem Korsten, Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society, The Netherlands.