Law and Visual Jurisprudence – serie

On behalf of Professor Hugh Brady, Director and Senior Fellow, The Flag Research Center at the University of Texas School of Law, "Flags, Color, and the Legal Narrative: Public Memory, Identity, and Critique (Springer 2021) has been selected as the recipient of our Gherardi Davis Prize is presented for a significant contribution to vexillological research for the year 2021. This work was selected because of its breadth and depth in examining flags as meaningful transmitters of significant symbolic information concerning the origins, culture, self-image, and values of a society. We believe it represents a signal achievement in the study of flags that sets a new standard for research in the field."  The Flag Research Center, founded in 1962, is dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the human need to create and use symbols to express political, cultural, and social ideals through flags and flag-related material culture. The book deals with the identification of “identity” based on culturally specific color codes and images that conceal assumptions about members of a people comprising a nation, or a people within a nation. Flags narrate constructions of belonging that become tethered to negotiations for power and resistance over time and throughout a people’s history. Bennet (2005) defines identity as “the imagined sameness of a person or social group at all times and in all circumstances”. While such likeness may be imagined or even perpetuated, the idea of sameness may be socially, politically, culturally, and historically contested to reveal competing pasts and presents. Visually evocative and ideologically representative, flags are recognized symbols fusing color with meaning that prescribe a story of unity. Yet, through semiotic confrontation, there may be different paths leading to different truths and applications of significance. Knowing this and their function, the book investigates these transmitted values over time and space. Indeed, flags may have evolved in key historical periods, but contemporaneously transpire in a variety of ways. The book investigates these transmitted values: Which values are being transmitted? Have their colors evolved through space and time? Is there a shift in cultural and/or collective meaning from one space to another? What are their sources? What is the relationship between law and flags in their visual representations? What is the shared collective and/or cultural memory beyond this visual representation? Considering the complexity and diversity in the building of a common memory with flags, the book interrogates the complex color-coded sign system of particular flags and their meanings attentive to a complex configuration of historical, social and cultural conditions that shift over time.Advance Praise for Flags, Color, and the Legal Narrative"In an epoch of fragmentation, isolation and resurgent nationalism, the flag is waved but often forgotten. The flag, its colors, narratives, shape and denotations go without saying. The red flag over China, the Star-Spangled Banner, the Tricolore are instantly recognisable and over determined, representing a people, a nation, a culture, languages, legacies, leaders. In this fabulous volume flags are revealed as concentrated, complex, chromatic assemblages of people, place and power in and through time. It is in bringing a multifocal awareness of the modes and meanings of flag and color in public representations that is particular strength. Editors Anne Wagner and Sarah Marusek have gathered critical thinkers from the North and South, East and West, to help know the essential and central - yet often forgotten and not seen - work of flags and color in narratives of nation, conflict, struggle and law. A kaleidoscopic contribution to theburgeoning field of visual jurisprudence, this volume is essential to comprehending the ocular machinery through which power makes, and is seen to make, the world."Kieran Tranter, Chair of Law, Technology and Future, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology, Australia"This comprehensive volume of essays could not be arriving at a more opportune time. The combined forces of climate change, inequality, and pandemic are causing instability and painful recognitions of our collective uncertainties about nationhood and globalism. In the United States, where I am writing these few lines, our traditional red/white/blue flag has been collapsed into two colors: Red and Blue. While these colors have semiotically deep texts, the division of the country into these two colors began with television stations designing how to report the vote count in the 2000 presidential election year creating "red" and "blue" parties and states. The colors stuck and have become customary. We Americans are told all the time by pundits that we are a deeply divided nation, as proven by unsubtle colored maps. To a statistician, we are a Purple America, though the color is unequally distributed. White, the color of negotiation and peace is rarely to be found. To begin to approach understanding the problems flagged in my brief account requires the insight of multiple disciplines. That is what Wagner and Marusek, wonderful scholars in their own work, have assembled as editors -- a conversation among scholars at the forefront of thinking about how flags and colors represent those who claim them thus exemplifying how to resist simple explanations and pat answers. The topic is just too important."Christina Spiesel, Senior Research Scholar in Law, Yale Law School; Adjunct Professsor of Law, Quinnipiac University School of Law, USA"Visuals, such as symbols and images, in addition to conventional textual forms, seem to have a unique potential for the study of a collective identity of a community and its traditions, as well as its narratives, and at the same time, in the expression of one’s ideas, impressions, and ideologies in a specific socio-political space. Visual analysis thus has become a well-established domain of investigations focusing on how various forms of text-external semiotic resources, such as culturally specific symbols, including patterns and colors, make it possible for scholars to account for and thus demystify discursive symbols in a wider social and public space. Flags, Identity, Memory: Critiquing the Public Narrative through Colors, as an international and interdisciplinary volume, is a unique attempt to demystify the thinking, values, assumptions and ideologies of specific nations and their communities by analyzing their choice of specific patterns and colors represented in a national flag. It offers a comprehensive and insightful range of studies of visual and hidden discursive processes to understand social narratives through patterns of colours in the choice of national flags and in turn to understand their semiotic, philosophical, and legal cultures and traditions. Wagner and Marusek provide an exclusive opportunity to reflect on the functions, roles, and limits of visual and discursive representations. This volume will be a uniquely resourceful addition to the study of semiotics of colours and flags, in particular, how nations and communities represent their relationship between ideology and pragmatism in the repository of identity, knowledge and history."Vijay K Bhatia, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Full Professor, Hong Kong"In all societies, colors play a critical function in the realm of symbolism. Nation societies perceive great significance in the colors of flags and national emblems. Colors constitute, in other words, sign systems of national identity. The relation of color codes and their relation to concepts of nationhood and its related narratives is the theme of this marvelous and eye-opening collection of studies. Flags are mini-texts on the inherent values and core concepts that a nation espouses and for this reason the colors that they bear can be read at many levels, from the purely representational to the inherently cultural. Written by experts in various fields this interdisciplinary anthology will be of interest to anyone in the humanities, social sciences, jurisprudence, narratology, political science, and semiotics. It will show how a seemingly decorative aspect of nationhood—the colors on flags—tells a much deeper story about the human condition."Marcel Danesi, University of Toronto, Full Professor of Anthropology, Canada

On behalf of Professor Hugh Brady, Director and Senior Fellow, The Flag Research Center at the University of Texas School of Law, "Flags, Color, and the Legal Narrative: Public Memory, Identity, and Critique (Springer 2021) has been selected as the recipient of our Gherardi Davis Prize is presented for a significant contribution to vexillological research for the year 2021. This work was selected because of its breadth and depth in examining flags as meaningful transmitters of significant symbolic information concerning the origins, culture, self-image, and values of a society. We believe it represents a signal achievement in the study of flags that sets a new standard for research in the field."  The Flag Research Center, founded in 1962, is dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the human need to create and use symbols to express political, cultural, and social ideals through flags and flag-related material culture. The book deals with the identification of “identity” based on culturally specific color codes and images that conceal assumptions about members of a people comprising a nation, or a people within a nation. Flags narrate constructions of belonging that become tethered to negotiations for power and resistance over time and throughout a people’s history. Bennet (2005) defines identity as “the imagined sameness of a person or social group at all times and in all circumstances”. While such likeness may be imagined or even perpetuated, the idea of sameness may be socially, politically, culturally, and historically contested to reveal competing pasts and presents. Visually evocative and ideologically representative, flags are recognized symbols fusing color with meaning that prescribe a story of unity. Yet, through semiotic confrontation, there may be different paths leading to different truths and applications of significance. Knowing this and their function, the book investigates these transmitted values over time and space. Indeed, flags may have evolved in key historical periods, but contemporaneously transpire in a variety of ways. The book investigates these transmitted values: Which values are being transmitted? Have their colors evolved through space and time? Is there a shift in cultural and/or collective meaning from one space to another? What are their sources? What is the relationship between law and flags in their visual representations? What is the shared collective and/or cultural memory beyond this visual representation? Considering the complexity and diversity in the building of a common memory with flags, the book interrogates the complex color-coded sign system of particular flags and their meanings attentive to a complex configuration of historical, social and cultural conditions that shift over time.Advance Praise for Flags, Color, and the Legal Narrative"In an epoch of fragmentation, isolation and resurgent nationalism, the flag is waved but often forgotten. The flag, its colors, narratives, shape and denotations go without saying. The red flag over China, the Star-Spangled Banner, the Tricolore are instantly recognisable and over determined, representing a people, a nation, a culture, languages, legacies, leaders. In this fabulous volume flags are revealed as concentrated, complex, chromatic assemblages of people, place and power in and through time. It is in bringing a multifocal awareness of the modes and meanings of flag and color in public representations that is particular strength. Editors Anne Wagner and Sarah Marusek have gathered critical thinkers from the North and South, East and West, to help know the essential and central - yet often forgotten and not seen - work of flags and color in narratives of nation, conflict, struggle and law. A kaleidoscopic contribution to theburgeoning field of visual jurisprudence, this volume is essential to comprehending the ocular machinery through which power makes, and is seen to make, the world."Kieran Tranter, Chair of Law, Technology and Future, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology, Australia"This comprehensive volume of essays could not be arriving at a more opportune time. The combined forces of climate change, inequality, and pandemic are causing instability and painful recognitions of our collective uncertainties about nationhood and globalism. In the United States, where I am writing these few lines, our traditional red/white/blue flag has been collapsed into two colors: Red and Blue. While these colors have semiotically deep texts, the division of the country into these two colors began with television stations designing how to report the vote count in the 2000 presidential election year creating "red" and "blue" parties and states. The colors stuck and have become customary. We Americans are told all the time by pundits that we are a deeply divided nation, as proven by unsubtle colored maps. To a statistician, we are a Purple America, though the color is unequally distributed. White, the color of negotiation and peace is rarely to be found. To begin to approach understanding the problems flagged in my brief account requires the insight of multiple disciplines. That is what Wagner and Marusek, wonderful scholars in their own work, have assembled as editors -- a conversation among scholars at the forefront of thinking about how flags and colors represent those who claim them thus exemplifying how to resist simple explanations and pat answers. The topic is just too important."Christina Spiesel, Senior Research Scholar in Law, Yale Law School; Adjunct Professsor of Law, Quinnipiac University School of Law, USA"Visuals, such as symbols and images, in addition to conventional textual forms, seem to have a unique potential for the study of a collective identity of a community and its traditions, as well as its narratives, and at the same time, in the expression of one’s ideas, impressions, and ideologies in a specific socio-political space. Visual analysis thus has become a well-established domain of investigations focusing on how various forms of text-external semiotic resources, such as culturally specific symbols, including patterns and colors, make it possible for scholars to account for and thus demystify discursive symbols in a wider social and public space. Flags, Identity, Memory: Critiquing the Public Narrative through Colors, as an international and interdisciplinary volume, is a unique attempt to demystify the thinking, values, assumptions and ideologies of specific nations and their communities by analyzing their choice of specific patterns and colors represented in a national flag. It offers a comprehensive and insightful range of studies of visual and hidden discursive processes to understand social narratives through patterns of colours in the choice of national flags and in turn to understand their semiotic, philosophical, and legal cultures and traditions. Wagner and Marusek provide an exclusive opportunity to reflect on the functions, roles, and limits of visual and discursive representations. This volume will be a uniquely resourceful addition to the study of semiotics of colours and flags, in particular, how nations and communities represent their relationship between ideology and pragmatism in the repository of identity, knowledge and history."Vijay K Bhatia, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Full Professor, Hong Kong"In all societies, colors play a critical function in the realm of symbolism. Nation societies perceive great significance in the colors of flags and national emblems. Colors constitute, in other words, sign systems of national identity. The relation of color codes and their relation to concepts of nationhood and its related narratives is the theme of this marvelous and eye-opening collection of studies. Flags are mini-texts on the inherent values and core concepts that a nation espouses and for this reason the colors that they bear can be read at many levels, from the purely representational to the inherently cultural. Written by experts in various fields this interdisciplinary anthology will be of interest to anyone in the humanities, social sciences, jurisprudence, narratology, political science, and semiotics. It will show how a seemingly decorative aspect of nationhood—the colors on flags—tells a much deeper story about the human condition."Marcel Danesi, University of Toronto, Full Professor of Anthropology, Canada

This book presents an interdisciplinary study of the relation between semiotics, law & art. Focusing on Greimasian semiotics, it examines specific works of art (from Giotto to Banksy) that deal with the theme of justice, promoting a more sensitive and humanized perception of the values that surround law. The book offers readers a comprehensive review of the semiotics of law, critically examining the relation between law & art. It covers a variety of topics, including semiotics, law and art; semiotics, art and experience; and society, law and art, as well as semiotics, law and painting; semiotics, law and architecture; semiotics, law and theatre; semiotics, law and literature; and semiotics, law and culture. In doing so, it uses the semiotics of painting to explain the symbology of justice and its significance in history; the semiotics of architecture to explain the setting of justice; the semiotics of theatre to explain the logic of the legal process; and the semiotics of literature toexplain the narrative logic of legal decisions. Lastly, drawing on the semiotics of culture, it discusses ways of promoting justice, citizenship and human rights.  Written from both philosophical and semiotical perspectives, the book enhances the centrality of visual jurisprudence studies to promote a better understanding of the role of law.

This book presents an interdisciplinary study of the relation between semiotics, law & art. Focusing on Greimasian semiotics, it examines specific works of art (from Giotto to Banksy) that deal with the theme of justice, promoting a more sensitive and humanized perception of the values that surround law. The book offers readers a comprehensive review of the semiotics of law, critically examining the relation between law & art. It covers a variety of topics, including semiotics, law and art; semiotics, art and experience; and society, law and art, as well as semiotics, law and painting; semiotics, law and architecture; semiotics, law and theatre; semiotics, law and literature; and semiotics, law and culture. In doing so, it uses the semiotics of painting to explain the symbology of justice and its significance in history; the semiotics of architecture to explain the setting of justice; the semiotics of theatre to explain the logic of the legal process; and the semiotics of literature toexplain the narrative logic of legal decisions. Lastly, drawing on the semiotics of culture, it discusses ways of promoting justice, citizenship and human rights.  Written from both philosophical and semiotical perspectives, the book enhances the centrality of visual jurisprudence studies to promote a better understanding of the role of law.

The book presents a comprehensive reconceptualization of Geert Hofstede’s well-known concept of power distance, applying the theory to the specific case of judge–witness courtroom interactions in Polish regional courts. In the light of the detailed critique of Hofstede’s original approach to power distance, the book first carefully develops a three-level concept of power distance, including personal preferences concerning the realization of power relations (subjective level); rules, practices and spatio-architectural arrangements  underlying power relations (organizational level); and individual demeanors that can, in practice, increase or decrease the asymmetry between parties to a power relation (interactional level). This reconceptualization provides a universal conceptual apparatus that is applicable to various social settings, but the authors have used it in extensive qualitative and quantitative research focused on courtroom interactions.After laying the theoretical foundations, the book details the elements of judge–witness courtroom interactions (both verbal and non-verbal) that contribute to establishing power distance between judge and witness. These were identified over 6 months of observational research conducted in 2018 in the Kraków regional courts. Lastly, the book addresses the issue of the relationship between the subjective level of power distance and opinions that laypeople can have concerning a judge’s demeanor in the courtroom environment. To do so, it describes specific quantitative research that involved the creation of original film clips depicting witness questioning by the judge in a courtroom in three power distance situations. Offering a coherent framework for examining various interpersonal relations in legal contexts and illustrating how the framework can be applied on the courtroom interactions example, the book will appeal to a wide range of legal practitioners and academics. It also allows scientists outside the legal field to gain a new and broad understanding of power distance that they can easily apply in their respective fields. Furthermore, it provides non-academics with insights into courtroom interactional dynamics, as exemplified by the discussion of Polish judicial practice.

The book presents a comprehensive reconceptualization of Geert Hofstede’s well-known concept of power distance, applying the theory to the specific case of judge–witness courtroom interactions in Polish regional courts. In the light of the detailed critique of Hofstede’s original approach to power distance, the book first carefully develops a three-level concept of power distance, including personal preferences concerning the realization of power relations (subjective level); rules, practices and spatio-architectural arrangements  underlying power relations (organizational level); and individual demeanors that can, in practice, increase or decrease the asymmetry between parties to a power relation (interactional level). This reconceptualization provides a universal conceptual apparatus that is applicable to various social settings, but the authors have used it in extensive qualitative and quantitative research focused on courtroom interactions.After laying the theoretical foundations, the book details the elements of judge–witness courtroom interactions (both verbal and non-verbal) that contribute to establishing power distance between judge and witness. These were identified over 6 months of observational research conducted in 2018 in the Kraków regional courts. Lastly, the book addresses the issue of the relationship between the subjective level of power distance and opinions that laypeople can have concerning a judge’s demeanor in the courtroom environment. To do so, it describes specific quantitative research that involved the creation of original film clips depicting witness questioning by the judge in a courtroom in three power distance situations. Offering a coherent framework for examining various interpersonal relations in legal contexts and illustrating how the framework can be applied on the courtroom interactions example, the book will appeal to a wide range of legal practitioners and academics. It also allows scientists outside the legal field to gain a new and broad understanding of power distance that they can easily apply in their respective fields. Furthermore, it provides non-academics with insights into courtroom interactional dynamics, as exemplified by the discussion of Polish judicial practice.

This book deals with the fundamental semantics of images of Europe, which consist of valences, mirror beliefs and affectivities. This is why it relaunches the importance of the European discourse in its symbolic dimension. As such, it explores the many images of Europe, or rather the many images through which European discourse is actually constituted in daily life, in search of their enunciative responsibility in today’s world for determining the current “State of the Union”. The identity of the European continent is based on a millenary tension between universalism and particularism: images of Europe have in fact been alternately inspired, over the centuries, by a model of homogeneity – Roman and Carolingian imperial disposition – on the one hand, and by a model of fragmentation – a Europe of city-states, municipalities, regions and small fatherlands – on the other. In the European Union, a political and economic organism, this issue has recently been amplified to the point that it has reentered public debate, and political parties that are only recognizable for being Europeanists or anti-Europeanists are now ubiquitous. In this regard, one major bone of contention is how to portray the quintessential aspects of the European territory, which are either interpreted as “thresholds” to be overcome in the name of a model of United Europe – “integral totality” – or are instead regarded as insurmountable obstacles for a Europe that is irreparably and perhaps, according to anti-Europeanists, fortunately fragmented – “partitive totality”. Further, this is to be done without excluding the possibility of contradictory and complementary solutions to these binary visions. In this context the book analyzes various texts in order to obtain a more precise picture of the clash, reveal its semiotic forms, and by doing so, identify a way out of the crisis.

This book deals with the fundamental semantics of images of Europe, which consist of valences, mirror beliefs and affectivities. This is why it relaunches the importance of the European discourse in its symbolic dimension. As such, it explores the many images of Europe, or rather the many images through which European discourse is actually constituted in daily life, in search of their enunciative responsibility in today’s world for determining the current “State of the Union”. The identity of the European continent is based on a millenary tension between universalism and particularism: images of Europe have in fact been alternately inspired, over the centuries, by a model of homogeneity – Roman and Carolingian imperial disposition – on the one hand, and by a model of fragmentation – a Europe of city-states, municipalities, regions and small fatherlands – on the other. In the European Union, a political and economic organism, this issue has recently been amplified to the point that it has reentered public debate, and political parties that are only recognizable for being Europeanists or anti-Europeanists are now ubiquitous. In this regard, one major bone of contention is how to portray the quintessential aspects of the European territory, which are either interpreted as “thresholds” to be overcome in the name of a model of United Europe – “integral totality” – or are instead regarded as insurmountable obstacles for a Europe that is irreparably and perhaps, according to anti-Europeanists, fortunately fragmented – “partitive totality”. Further, this is to be done without excluding the possibility of contradictory and complementary solutions to these binary visions. In this context the book analyzes various texts in order to obtain a more precise picture of the clash, reveal its semiotic forms, and by doing so, identify a way out of the crisis.

Divided into three parts, this book examines the relationship between law and culture from various perspectives, both theoretical and empirical. Part I outlines the framework for further considerations and includes new, innovative conceptualizations of two ideas that are essential to the topic of law and culture: legal culture and customary law. Both of these reappear later in the more empirically oriented chapters of Parts II and III. Part II includes chapters on the relationships between law, customs, and culture, drawing heavily on the tradition and achievements of the anthropology of law and touching on important problems of multiculturalism, legal pluralism, and cultural defense. It focuses on the more intangible meaning of culture, while Part III addresses its more material, tangible aspects and the issue of cultural production, as well as its intersection with law.

Divided into three parts, this book examines the relationship between law and culture from various perspectives, both theoretical and empirical. Part I outlines the framework for further considerations and includes new, innovative conceptualizations of two ideas that are essential to the topic of law and culture: legal culture and customary law. Both of these reappear later in the more empirically oriented chapters of Parts II and III. Part II includes chapters on the relationships between law, customs, and culture, drawing heavily on the tradition and achievements of the anthropology of law and touching on important problems of multiculturalism, legal pluralism, and cultural defense. It focuses on the more intangible meaning of culture, while Part III addresses its more material, tangible aspects and the issue of cultural production, as well as its intersection with law.

This book offers an introduction to the language of law from the perspective of logical semantics. As a logical tool, Boguslaw Wolniewicz’s formal ontology of situations is adapted. The central issue addressed is the meaning of normative statements, primarily legal norms. The main outcome of the book consists in explications of several legal notions (including legal events, legal acts and legal rules) in terms of the formal ontology of situations. In addition, the book concludes that legal norms are sentences in a logical sense, so some are true, while others are false, and that their logical value does not depend on whether or not they were adopted in the law-making process. Lastly, the book contends that there are semantic relations between orders that are similar to entailment, contradiction, opposition, and sub-opposition, despite the fact that orders are not sentences in a logical sense, i.e., they are neither true nor false.The book alsopresents some original Wittgenstein-style deontic logics built on the first order logic. The formal results are applied to selected problems in the theory of law, including the problem of the possibility of algorithmic application of legal norms.

This book offers an introduction to the language of law from the perspective of logical semantics. As a logical tool, Boguslaw Wolniewicz’s formal ontology of situations is adapted. The central issue addressed is the meaning of normative statements, primarily legal norms. The main outcome of the book consists in explications of several legal notions (including legal events, legal acts and legal rules) in terms of the formal ontology of situations. In addition, the book concludes that legal norms are sentences in a logical sense, so some are true, while others are false, and that their logical value does not depend on whether or not they were adopted in the law-making process. Lastly, the book contends that there are semantic relations between orders that are similar to entailment, contradiction, opposition, and sub-opposition, despite the fact that orders are not sentences in a logical sense, i.e., they are neither true nor false.The book alsopresents some original Wittgenstein-style deontic logics built on the first order logic. The formal results are applied to selected problems in the theory of law, including the problem of the possibility of algorithmic application of legal norms.

This book intertwines two major themes in contemporary legal theory – the concepts of human dignity and the problem of the autonomy and limits of the law – while also addressing two other key aspects – the first one concerned with human rights practices and foundations (in their direct connections with the issue of dignity), the second one considering the role that the law’s aspirations attribute to the experience of an autonomous subject-person (and the demands that identify his/her position in the dialectical counterpoint with the rethinking of a community). The diversity of perspectives that each of these themes allows is explored in various contexts and with unmistakable implications concerning juridical validity, rule of law practices, pluralism, political and practical-cultural challenges, and divisive “bio-ethical” issues. This means considering the separation or separability theses between law and morality and the juridically relevant experience of person(hood) as a dialectic between autonomy and responsibility, the orthodox and heterodox images of comparable concreteness and incomparable singularity, the challenges of external points of view and interdisciplinary approaches.

This book intertwines two major themes in contemporary legal theory – the concepts of human dignity and the problem of the autonomy and limits of the law – while also addressing two other key aspects – the first one concerned with human rights practices and foundations (in their direct connections with the issue of dignity), the second one considering the role that the law’s aspirations attribute to the experience of an autonomous subject-person (and the demands that identify his/her position in the dialectical counterpoint with the rethinking of a community). The diversity of perspectives that each of these themes allows is explored in various contexts and with unmistakable implications concerning juridical validity, rule of law practices, pluralism, political and practical-cultural challenges, and divisive “bio-ethical” issues. This means considering the separation or separability theses between law and morality and the juridically relevant experience of person(hood) as a dialectic between autonomy and responsibility, the orthodox and heterodox images of comparable concreteness and incomparable singularity, the challenges of external points of view and interdisciplinary approaches.

All knowledge is always a matter of change, as this book underlines. All knowledge links You and Me to Reality. This process of positioning cognition has become heavily influenced by conversion. Its cultural background is in this book named ‘the New Plural’: a worldview based on combinations of Analog, Digital, AI and Quantum understandings of reality.The New Plural, combined with in-depth observations on the Subject in new forms of knowledge formation, forms the background theme of the book. To understand the Subject as defined in past centuries, like Kant’s so-called ‘split ego’ or Voegelin’s ‘flow’, are outlined together with Husserl’s ‘phenomenology of ego-positions’. Today, one encounters the Subject transformed into a Self with other forms that replace the traditional Subject and its position. The dynamics of the Self are therefore broader than any Selfie can picture. What the book calls ‘the Self in digital culture’ and for what it introduces the name Self-E, is therefore essential for a semiotic observation of all actual patterns and practices of communication.The decentering of the Subject changed human cognition. The book introduces ‘The 3-S Triad’ (composed of the ‘Subject–Self–Self-E’), which has taken the place and functions of the classical Subject and its dynamics. Cognition has assumed a different position in the heart and mind of every human being. At the same time, the influence of ‘The New Plural’ has grown, making digital thought formation the leading pattern and foundation of today’s knowledge. That different view on human identity made knowledge as understanding and its traditional grasping disappear. All fragments of planetary life were subjected to a newly conceived and often digitally anchored fitting. That forms one of the most powerful and global challenges to the human mind. What if we conclude about climate change that our knowledge fits the problems concerned? The book’s final pages outline an epistemological path through such complex zones of knowledge! But its broad and encompassing background question remains, what the concept of change really means when it is challenged to clarify the topic we name climate change.

All knowledge is always a matter of change, as this book underlines. All knowledge links You and Me to Reality. This process of positioning cognition has become heavily influenced by conversion. Its cultural background is in this book named ‘the New Plural’: a worldview based on combinations of Analog, Digital, AI and Quantum understandings of reality.The New Plural, combined with in-depth observations on the Subject in new forms of knowledge formation, forms the background theme of the book. To understand the Subject as defined in past centuries, like Kant’s so-called ‘split ego’ or Voegelin’s ‘flow’, are outlined together with Husserl’s ‘phenomenology of ego-positions’. Today, one encounters the Subject transformed into a Self with other forms that replace the traditional Subject and its position. The dynamics of the Self are therefore broader than any Selfie can picture. What the book calls ‘the Self in digital culture’ and for what it introduces the name Self-E, is therefore essential for a semiotic observation of all actual patterns and practices of communication.The decentering of the Subject changed human cognition. The book introduces ‘The 3-S Triad’ (composed of the ‘Subject–Self–Self-E’), which has taken the place and functions of the classical Subject and its dynamics. Cognition has assumed a different position in the heart and mind of every human being. At the same time, the influence of ‘The New Plural’ has grown, making digital thought formation the leading pattern and foundation of today’s knowledge. That different view on human identity made knowledge as understanding and its traditional grasping disappear. All fragments of planetary life were subjected to a newly conceived and often digitally anchored fitting. That forms one of the most powerful and global challenges to the human mind. What if we conclude about climate change that our knowledge fits the problems concerned? The book’s final pages outline an epistemological path through such complex zones of knowledge! But its broad and encompassing background question remains, what the concept of change really means when it is challenged to clarify the topic we name climate change.

Edmund Husserl’s ideas, informed by Kant’s Critiques, constituted a point of departure when rereading philosophical problems of subject and subjectivity. In his “Phänomenologie und Egologie” (1961/63), Jan Broekman revealed how Husserl analysed the “Split Ego” notion in Kant’s vision, which became fundamental for his phenomenology. The form and function of subjectivity were likewise positioned in psychiatry and literature, as well as in aesthetics, as Jan Broekman’s texts on ‘cubism’ demonstrated. Problems of ‘language’ unfolded in studies on topics ranging from the texts of Ezra Pound to the dialogic insights of Martin Buber, all of which were involved in the development of semiotics. Two themes accompanied these insights: the notion and later Parisian mainstream called structuralism, and the urgent need to arrive at deeper insights into the links between Marxism and phenomenology.  Central language concepts also played a part: as early as 1986, Jan Broekman published on ‘semiology and medical discourse’, and in 1992 on ‘neurosemiotics’, before addressing the link between speech act and (legal as well as social) freedom in 1993. In all these works, the subject and the atmosphere of subjectivity were essential aspects. In addition to his writing, Jan Broekman gave courses on current philosophical issues, law and medicine until retiring in 1996, and in his “Intertwinements of Law and Medicine” revisited subjectivity aspects, while also offering a synthetic view.In this Festschrift in honour of Jan Broekman, the contributions address the analogue/digital dichotomy in semiotics, the multicultural self in language and semiotics, semiology and legal discourse, the legal subject and the atmosphere of subjectivity, intertwinements of law and medicine, the semiotics of law in legal education, signs in law and legal discourse, making meaning in law, and legal speech acts.

Edmund Husserl’s ideas, informed by Kant’s Critiques, constituted a point of departure when rereading philosophical problems of subject and subjectivity. In his “Phänomenologie und Egologie” (1961/63), Jan Broekman revealed how Husserl analysed the “Split Ego” notion in Kant’s vision, which became fundamental for his phenomenology. The form and function of subjectivity were likewise positioned in psychiatry and literature, as well as in aesthetics, as Jan Broekman’s texts on ‘cubism’ demonstrated. Problems of ‘language’ unfolded in studies on topics ranging from the texts of Ezra Pound to the dialogic insights of Martin Buber, all of which were involved in the development of semiotics. Two themes accompanied these insights: the notion and later Parisian mainstream called structuralism, and the urgent need to arrive at deeper insights into the links between Marxism and phenomenology.  Central language concepts also played a part: as early as 1986, Jan Broekman published on ‘semiology and medical discourse’, and in 1992 on ‘neurosemiotics’, before addressing the link between speech act and (legal as well as social) freedom in 1993. In all these works, the subject and the atmosphere of subjectivity were essential aspects. In addition to his writing, Jan Broekman gave courses on current philosophical issues, law and medicine until retiring in 1996, and in his “Intertwinements of Law and Medicine” revisited subjectivity aspects, while also offering a synthetic view.In this Festschrift in honour of Jan Broekman, the contributions address the analogue/digital dichotomy in semiotics, the multicultural self in language and semiotics, semiology and legal discourse, the legal subject and the atmosphere of subjectivity, intertwinements of law and medicine, the semiotics of law in legal education, signs in law and legal discourse, making meaning in law, and legal speech acts.

This book proposes an interdisciplinary methodology for developing an intercultural use of law so as to include cultural differences and their protection within legal discourse; this is based on an analysis of the sensory grammar tacitly included in categorizations. This is achieved by combining the theoretical insights provided by legal theory, anthropology and semiotics with a reading of human rights as translational interfaces among the different cultural spaces in which people live. To support this use of human rights’ semantic and normative potential, a specific cultural-geographic view dubbed ‘legal chorology’ is employed. Its primary purpose is to show the extant continuity between categories and spaces of experience, and more specifically between legal meanings and the spatial dimensions of people’s lives.Through the lens of legal chorology and the intercultural, translational use of human rights, the book provides a methodology that shows how to make space and lawreciprocally transformative so as to create an inclusive legal grammar that is equidistant from social cultural differences. The analysis includes: a critical view on opportunities for intercultural secularization; the possibility of construing a legal grammar of quotidian life that leads to an inclusive equidistance from differences rather than an unachievable neutrality or an all-encompassing universal legal ontology; an interdisciplinary methodology for legal intercultural translation; a chorological reading of the relationships between human rights protection and lived spaces; and an intercultural and geo-semiotic examination of a series of legal cases and current issues such as indigenous peoples’ rights and the international protection of sacred places.

This book proposes an interdisciplinary methodology for developing an intercultural use of law so as to include cultural differences and their protection within legal discourse; this is based on an analysis of the sensory grammar tacitly included in categorizations. This is achieved by combining the theoretical insights provided by legal theory, anthropology and semiotics with a reading of human rights as translational interfaces among the different cultural spaces in which people live. To support this use of human rights’ semantic and normative potential, a specific cultural-geographic view dubbed ‘legal chorology’ is employed. Its primary purpose is to show the extant continuity between categories and spaces of experience, and more specifically between legal meanings and the spatial dimensions of people’s lives.Through the lens of legal chorology and the intercultural, translational use of human rights, the book provides a methodology that shows how to make space and lawreciprocally transformative so as to create an inclusive legal grammar that is equidistant from social cultural differences. The analysis includes: a critical view on opportunities for intercultural secularization; the possibility of construing a legal grammar of quotidian life that leads to an inclusive equidistance from differences rather than an unachievable neutrality or an all-encompassing universal legal ontology; an interdisciplinary methodology for legal intercultural translation; a chorological reading of the relationships between human rights protection and lived spaces; and an intercultural and geo-semiotic examination of a series of legal cases and current issues such as indigenous peoples’ rights and the international protection of sacred places.

The translation of legal documents in today’s globally interconnected world calls for novel approaches to overcoming traditional language barriers. The verbal language used in legal documents can be accompanied or even replaced by various types of semiotic resource, such as symbols, diagrams, and icons, while the advancement of digital tools and the introduction of new technologies offer those drafting contracts and other legal documents access to an ever-expanding toolbox for the translation process.This book makes a significant contribution to the existing literature on legal translation and intersemiotic translation by sharing valuable insights and opening up new avenues of inquiry, fostering further exploration of this evolving domain and enabling practitioners to use these diverse communication tools responsibly and effectively.Given the book’s structured multidisciplinary approach and extensive analyses of the characteristics of intersemiotic legal translation, its potential, and the complexities that arise at the intersection of law, language, and semiotics, it will appeal to legal practitioners, translators, semiotic scholars, and legal philosophers alike.Whether you are a legal professional aiming to expand your expertise, an academic seeking a new research direction, or are simply intrigued by the fascinating interplay of law, language, and semiotics, this book offers a valuable resource that sheds light on the unique dynamics of translating legal concepts using approaches other than traditional verbal communication. As such, it is an essential read for anyone who is interested in the changing landscape of law, language, and translation.

The translation of legal documents in today’s globally interconnected world calls for novel approaches to overcoming traditional language barriers. The verbal language used in legal documents can be accompanied or even replaced by various types of semiotic resource, such as symbols, diagrams, and icons, while the advancement of digital tools and the introduction of new technologies offer those drafting contracts and other legal documents access to an ever-expanding toolbox for the translation process.This book makes a significant contribution to the existing literature on legal translation and intersemiotic translation by sharing valuable insights and opening up new avenues of inquiry, fostering further exploration of this evolving domain and enabling practitioners to use these diverse communication tools responsibly and effectively.Given the book’s structured multidisciplinary approach and extensive analyses of the characteristics of intersemiotic legal translation, its potential, and the complexities that arise at the intersection of law, language, and semiotics, it will appeal to legal practitioners, translators, semiotic scholars, and legal philosophers alike.Whether you are a legal professional aiming to expand your expertise, an academic seeking a new research direction, or are simply intrigued by the fascinating interplay of law, language, and semiotics, this book offers a valuable resource that sheds light on the unique dynamics of translating legal concepts using approaches other than traditional verbal communication. As such, it is an essential read for anyone who is interested in the changing landscape of law, language, and translation.

This edited collection, which brings together nearly fifty authors from across the globe and various disciplines, makes a valuable contribution to the field of conservation, covering a wide range of topics regarding the protection of heritage in times of war and peace. Uniquely linking the two typically separate perspectives, the book builds on the wealth of discussions that took place during the 2021 and 2022 installments of the international “Heritage in War and Peace” Seminars held in Rome and Montréal, respectively.Issues explored in the volume include but are not limited to questions surrounding the protection of contentious heritages, unsustainability of the current dichotomic cultural/natural heritage protection frameworks, digitalization of heritage, place of heritage in military conflicts, use of heritage by armed non-state actors, indigenous peoples’ relationships with heritage, the intersection of intellectual property (IP) law and heritage, human rights matters linked to heritage protection, and the latest case studies surrounding restitution.Given its scope, the book will be of particular interest not only to practitioners and conservation specialists but also to academics and students in the broader social sciences and humanities, and to all those who hope to preserve our heritage for future generations.

Cyberhate is defined as racist, discriminatory, negationist and violent statements made on social network platforms, text platforms, comment pages, and more. The Handbook on Cyber Hate, the Modern Cyber Evil, includes twenty-seven chapters from scholars representing over fifteen countries from the Global North and the Global South demonstrating a range of multi-faceted perspectives. While providing such a focus, these papers will also operate with a constantly evolving conceptualization of contemporary societies and their modern cyber-evil. Indeed, modern cyber-evil is a global concern and is primarily based on human minds and activities, and on deviant uses of modern technologies, which may differ ideologically, historically and culturally on the global map of modern legal systems. This plurality of perspectives, which poses a challenge to our future, is a strength of this handbook that offers a variety of foundations, legal perspectives, and popular developments in an effort to suggest measures to combat this modern cyber-evil infecting communications around the world.Editors Anne Wagner and Sarah Marusek offer a unique collection of chapters involving the theoretical foundations, legal perspectives, and societal perspectives from popular culture of modern cyber evil in order to address and combat racism on the basis of alleged race, skin color, nationality, descent and national or ethnic origin, etc.; discrimination/xenophobia on the basis of sex, gender, sexual orientation, religious or philosophical beliefs, health status, physical characteristics, etc.; hatred; violence; e-predation; and e-victimization. Advance Praise for “Handbook on Cyber Hate – The Modern Cyber Evil”“In 'Handbook on Cyber Hate – The Modern Cyber Evil', editors Anne Wagner and Sarah Marusek have masterfully created a much-needed resource for understanding the complex and ever-changing landscape of online hate and cyberbullying. This comprehensive handbook delves deep into the murky waters of cyberevil, offering insightful semiotic and transdisciplinary perspectives from a wide range of international scholars. Each chapter deftly navigates the theoretical, legal, and societal dimensions of cyberhate, shedding light on the complex interplay between technology, law, and culture.The book's exploration of cyber hate is not just academic, but a call to action. It encourages readers, denizens of the digital semiosphere, to recognize and combat the insidious nature of online hate, equipping them with knowledge and strategies for creating a safer digital world. Covering topics from the study of benign exhibitionism, the boundaries between speech and action in cyberhate, legal intricacies of that speech, trolling in social media and hegemonic masculinity, to the cinematic portrayal of cyberbullying and the malicious use of memes: this handbook is a beacon of hope and guidelines in our increasingly digital society.What sets this handbook apart is its holistic approach. It not only identifies problems, but in many cases inspires solutions, fostering a culture of responsible digital citizenship and empathy. This is not just a book, but a road map for creating a more inclusive and compassionate online community. As we face the challenges of the digital age, 'Handbook on Cyber Hate – The Modern Cyber Evil' is an indispensable handbook for researchers, educators, policy makers and all who seek to understand and combat the complexities of cyber hate. This is a must-read for shaping a more respectful and empathetic digital world.”Kristian Bankov, Professor of Semiotics, New Bulgarian University “In the present time of great confusion caused by the blurring of the lines of distinction between the real and virtual worlds, between artificial and human forms of intelligence and even between good and bad technologies representative for expressions of love and hate, the ‘Handbook on Cyber Hate – The Modern Cyber Evil’ brings an urgently needed, comprehensive and transdisciplinary reflection on the evil sides of human activities in cyberspace.”Rostam J. Neuwirth, Professor of Law and Head of Department of Global Legal Studies, Faculty of Law, University of Macau “This is a time-critical volume of significance which covers a range of aspects relating to one of the most pernicious social challenges of modern times. Any scholar working in the field needs a copy at hand – essential reading material in an ever-evolving discussion. The range of perspectives and discussions offers a unique critical mass from which to evaluate the progress, the enduring challenge, and the scope for hope in addressing cyberhate.”Kim Barker, Professor of Law, Lincoln Law School

Cyberhate is defined as racist, discriminatory, negationist and violent statements made on social network platforms, text platforms, comment pages, and more. The Handbook on Cyber Hate, the Modern Cyber Evil, includes twenty-seven chapters from scholars representing over fifteen countries from the Global North and the Global South demonstrating a range of multi-faceted perspectives. While providing such a focus, these papers will also operate with a constantly evolving conceptualization of contemporary societies and their modern cyber-evil. Indeed, modern cyber-evil is a global concern and is primarily based on human minds and activities, and on deviant uses of modern technologies, which may differ ideologically, historically and culturally on the global map of modern legal systems. This plurality of perspectives, which poses a challenge to our future, is a strength of this handbook that offers a variety of foundations, legal perspectives, and popular developments in an effort to suggest measures to combat this modern cyber-evil infecting communications around the world.Editors Anne Wagner and Sarah Marusek offer a unique collection of chapters involving the theoretical foundations, legal perspectives, and societal perspectives from popular culture of modern cyber evil in order to address and combat racism on the basis of alleged race, skin color, nationality, descent and national or ethnic origin, etc.; discrimination/xenophobia on the basis of sex, gender, sexual orientation, religious or philosophical beliefs, health status, physical characteristics, etc.; hatred; violence; e-predation; and e-victimization. Advance Praise for “Handbook on Cyber Hate – The Modern Cyber Evil”“In 'Handbook on Cyber Hate – The Modern Cyber Evil', editors Anne Wagner and Sarah Marusek have masterfully created a much-needed resource for understanding the complex and ever-changing landscape of online hate and cyberbullying. This comprehensive handbook delves deep into the murky waters of cyberevil, offering insightful semiotic and transdisciplinary perspectives from a wide range of international scholars. Each chapter deftly navigates the theoretical, legal, and societal dimensions of cyberhate, shedding light on the complex interplay between technology, law, and culture.The book's exploration of cyber hate is not just academic, but a call to action. It encourages readers, denizens of the digital semiosphere, to recognize and combat the insidious nature of online hate, equipping them with knowledge and strategies for creating a safer digital world. Covering topics from the study of benign exhibitionism, the boundaries between speech and action in cyberhate, legal intricacies of that speech, trolling in social media and hegemonic masculinity, to the cinematic portrayal of cyberbullying and the malicious use of memes: this handbook is a beacon of hope and guidelines in our increasingly digital society.What sets this handbook apart is its holistic approach. It not only identifies problems, but in many cases inspires solutions, fostering a culture of responsible digital citizenship and empathy. This is not just a book, but a road map for creating a more inclusive and compassionate online community. As we face the challenges of the digital age, 'Handbook on Cyber Hate – The Modern Cyber Evil' is an indispensable handbook for researchers, educators, policy makers and all who seek to understand and combat the complexities of cyber hate. This is a must-read for shaping a more respectful and empathetic digital world.”Kristian Bankov, Professor of Semiotics, New Bulgarian University “In the present time of great confusion caused by the blurring of the lines of distinction between the real and virtual worlds, between artificial and human forms of intelligence and even between good and bad technologies representative for expressions of love and hate, the ‘Handbook on Cyber Hate – The Modern Cyber Evil’ brings an urgently needed, comprehensive and transdisciplinary reflection on the evil sides of human activities in cyberspace.”Rostam J. Neuwirth, Professor of Law and Head of Department of Global Legal Studies, Faculty of Law, University of Macau “This is a time-critical volume of significance which covers a range of aspects relating to one of the most pernicious social challenges of modern times. Any scholar working in the field needs a copy at hand – essential reading material in an ever-evolving discussion. The range of perspectives and discussions offers a unique critical mass from which to evaluate the progress, the enduring challenge, and the scope for hope in addressing cyberhate.”Kim Barker, Professor of Law, Lincoln Law School

The aesthetics of law deals with the relationship between law and beauty by searching for aesthetic values in the law itself (an internal perspective), by finding material related to law in art and culture (an external perspective), and, lastly, by demonstrating the impact of legal norms on what can be broadly understood as beauty (law as a tool of aestheticization). Regarding all these phenomena, the aesthetics of law ultimately allows us to see the law more clearly and more profoundly. What is more, the law does not function, nor has it ever functioned, separately from its means of expression, which are incontrovertibly subject to aesthetic interpretation. If we think about law in this way, perceiving not only the message, but also the manner in which it is conveyed, the whole set of means and tools used, the perfection and beauty of the form, then we will see art in it. After all, the widely known and still applicable ancient maxim ius est ars boni et aequi equates law and art. This alone should be an argument for aesthetic reflection on the law, a field of endeavour that should never have been abandoned. The book’s twenty-three chapters, written by scholars from various countries and three continents, are thematically diverse. In them we present the manifestations of the aesthetics of law from an external perspective. If we accept a definition of the concept of law that is as broad as possible, not only as a synonym of a certain formalized normative system, but also including the process of its creation (legislation), its application and interpretation (jurisprudence), and even teaching on and research into it (doctrine), we can identify a wealth of aesthetic references in the law.  A broadly understood aesthetics of law, approached solely from an external perspective, covers such disciplines as law and literature, the aesthetics of legal rhetoric, the trial as performance, the aesthetics ofcourthouse architecture, law in the fine arts, law in film, law and music, pictorial law, symbols of the law and legal symbols, symbols of the state and power, legal archaeology etc. The field of research is, therefore, wide. In addition to topics traditionally and obviously associated with the aesthetics of law, such as law and literature, law in the fine arts, and court rhetoric, there are chapters on e.g. legal ethics and trademarks. All authors share the belief that beauty in law is important, even when it is hidden in a caricature. Further, they argue for restoring the aesthetics of law to its proper place in philosophical and legal discourse, as doing so would yield a host of benefits for the addressees of law.

The aesthetics of law deals with the relationship between law and beauty by searching for aesthetic values in the law itself (an internal perspective), by finding material related to law in art and culture (an external perspective), and, lastly, by demonstrating the impact of legal norms on what can be broadly understood as beauty (law as a tool of aestheticization). Regarding all these phenomena, the aesthetics of law ultimately allows us to see the law more clearly and more profoundly. What is more, the law does not function, nor has it ever functioned, separately from its means of expression, which are incontrovertibly subject to aesthetic interpretation. If we think about law in this way, perceiving not only the message, but also the manner in which it is conveyed, the whole set of means and tools used, the perfection and beauty of the form, then we will see art in it. After all, the widely known and still applicable ancient maxim ius est ars boni et aequi equates law and art. This alone should be an argument for aesthetic reflection on the law, a field of endeavour that should never have been abandoned. The book’s twenty-three chapters, written by scholars from various countries and three continents, are thematically diverse. In them we present the manifestations of the aesthetics of law from an external perspective. If we accept a definition of the concept of law that is as broad as possible, not only as a synonym of a certain formalized normative system, but also including the process of its creation (legislation), its application and interpretation (jurisprudence), and even teaching on and research into it (doctrine), we can identify a wealth of aesthetic references in the law.  A broadly understood aesthetics of law, approached solely from an external perspective, covers such disciplines as law and literature, the aesthetics of legal rhetoric, the trial as performance, the aesthetics ofcourthouse architecture, law in the fine arts, law in film, law and music, pictorial law, symbols of the law and legal symbols, symbols of the state and power, legal archaeology etc. The field of research is, therefore, wide. In addition to topics traditionally and obviously associated with the aesthetics of law, such as law and literature, law in the fine arts, and court rhetoric, there are chapters on e.g. legal ethics and trademarks. All authors share the belief that beauty in law is important, even when it is hidden in a caricature. Further, they argue for restoring the aesthetics of law to its proper place in philosophical and legal discourse, as doing so would yield a host of benefits for the addressees of law.

This book is the first volume on the artistic representation of industrial disputes in European art (from 1870 to 1914) since the catalogue of the landmark exhibition Streik, Realität und Mythos, organized by the Deutsches Historisches Museum (1992). It has been written by a group of scholars who share a keen interest in social history and the history of art, as well as in-depth knowledge of industrial relations and collective labour law.Seeking to transcend a purely western European perspective, the book offers unprecedented insights into artistic production in Poland and Hungary from the 19th century to the communist era. It even goes beyond the European continent, examining the United States and Mexico.The media explored include painting, sculpture, the graphic arts and photography. Further, the book deals with artists great (Carlo Carrà, Walter Crane, James Ensor, Juan Gris, Käthe Kollwitz, Constantin Meunier,Mihály Munkácsy, Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen and Jan Toorop) and small, sometimes even anonymous. The artistic styles range from (social) realism, naturalism and neo-impressionism to futurism and socialist realism.All stages of industrial disputes (from the causes of strikes to their violent suppression) are subjected to iconographical and iconological analysis, combined with perspectives from visual studies, critical art and gender studies. Agricultural workers, miners, construction workers and textile workers fill the scenes. Most of them are subordinate workers; others are (bogus) independent workers and migrant workers.Given its scope, the book will be of interest to (art) historians, labour law scholars, and specialists in industrial relations.

This book is the first volume on the artistic representation of industrial disputes in European art (from 1870 to 1914) since the catalogue of the landmark exhibition Streik, Realität und Mythos, organized by the Deutsches Historisches Museum (1992). It has been written by a group of scholars who share a keen interest in social history and the history of art, as well as in-depth knowledge of industrial relations and collective labour law.Seeking to transcend a purely western European perspective, the book offers unprecedented insights into artistic production in Poland and Hungary from the 19th century to the communist era. It even goes beyond the European continent, examining the United States and Mexico.The media explored include painting, sculpture, the graphic arts and photography. Further, the book deals with artists great (Carlo Carrà, Walter Crane, James Ensor, Juan Gris, Käthe Kollwitz, Constantin Meunier,Mihály Munkácsy, Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen and Jan Toorop) and small, sometimes even anonymous. The artistic styles range from (social) realism, naturalism and neo-impressionism to futurism and socialist realism.All stages of industrial disputes (from the causes of strikes to their violent suppression) are subjected to iconographical and iconological analysis, combined with perspectives from visual studies, critical art and gender studies. Agricultural workers, miners, construction workers and textile workers fill the scenes. Most of them are subordinate workers; others are (bogus) independent workers and migrant workers.Given its scope, the book will be of interest to (art) historians, labour law scholars, and specialists in industrial relations.