Abstract
Taking inspiration from some works by cinema critics included in the volume, the cinematography of Stanley Kubrick is presented here as a battlefield between “words” and “images”, in which images always win. From this perspective, the Author reflects about the links between Law – the world of the words – and Image, to discover connections that can lead us to formulate a theory of justice. Therefore Kubrick’s films are here somehow seen as a “pre-text” to pose hard questions: what does the “world of images” have to teach and to tell to the “world without images” of the Law? What courageous, enriching, or uncomfortable, connections are possible? This essay does not delve into the issue of the iconography of justice, an issue well and long studied; instead, its purpose is to further analyze how images can nourish the universe of the Law, which seems deprived of them: what benefits can come to the world of the Law from the immense, yet sometime problematic, richness that images bring to knowledge of reality? Beyond the one-way imagery of Justice, a lady with a sword and a balance scale, and often a blindfold, there is the possibility to envision, even if only theoretically, about a different idea of Justice. This article discusses two examples: two physical sites, buildings in which justice is administered, and yet, in which a different idea of Justice is set forth. The building that houses the Supreme Court of Israel, with its reliance on the concepts of straight and round, transparency and light, exemplifies the possibility for ‘rights’ – a system of Law, in its rigidity – to meet the curvy ‘wrongs’ of human beings, under the sheltering light of transparency. The South African Constitutional Court’s logo – Justice under a tree –portrays an idea of Justice aimed at protecting and caring, instead of at controlling and punishing. Starting from these reflections, apparently far from juridical technicalities, the Author presents an innovative approach to administer and render Justice.
Translated title of the contribution | [Autom. eng. transl.] The world without images of jurists |
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Original language | Italian |
Title of host publication | Giustizia e letteratura II |
Editors | G. Forti, C. Mazzucato, A. Visconti |
Pages | 430-465 |
Number of pages | 36 |
Publication status | Published - 2014 |
Keywords
- Filosofia delle immagini
- Images of justice
- Immagini della giustizia
- Philosophy of images
- Teorie della giustizia
- Theory of justice