Since the global financial crash of 2008, we have witnessed increasing levels of unrest and social discontent around the world (the various Occupys, the Spanish and Greek Indignados, the Arab Spring, the continuing disturbances in Brazil). Each of these moments raises significant questions for legal scholars: from the nature of police power, the role of law in austerity and the emergency state, to issues of intra- and extra-systemic constitutional change and revolutionary social transformation. This workshop gathers together a number of the foremost scholars working in the field of ‘Law and Humanities’, and invites them to consider how the various ‘law and…’ methodologies (law and literature, film, theatre studies, etc.) enable us to think through our contemporary conjuncture. It challenges them to think about the scenes of unrest, the staging of protest, and the writing of injustice and discontent. It aims to address the following questions:

• How might Law and Humanities enable us to make sense of a setting of popular dissensus, of widespread economic, political and environmental chaos and inequity?
• What does it mean to choose the disciplinary apparatus of Law and Humanities in the quintessential political setting – the moment of popular dissensus and disagreement?
• What are the possibilities of an aesthetic engagement with law, protest and dissent?

The Workshop will take place at the University of Warwick, on the 14th of October. Lunch will be provided. Tickets are free and available here, but please register in advance.

Confirmed Contributers

Nadine El-Enany (Birkbeck)

Julen Etxabe (Helsinki)

Adam Gearey (Birkbeck)

Silvija Jestrovic (Warwick)

Daniel Matthews (Hong Kong)

Rashmi Varma (Warwick)

Scott Veitch (Hong Kong)

Marco Wan (Hong Kong)

Gary Watt (Warwick)

Andrew Williams (Warwick)