Performing Law

The words “all rise” announce the appearance of the judge in the thespian space of the courtroom and trigger the beginning of that play we call a trial. The symbolically staged enactment of conflict in the form of litigation is exemplary of legal action, its liturgical and real effects. It establishes the roles and discourses, hierarchy and deference, atmospheres and affects that are to be taken up in the more general social stage of public life. Leading international scholars drawn from performance studies, theatre history, aesthetics, dance, film, and law provide critical analyses of the sites, dramas, and stage directions to be found in the orchestration of the tragedies and comedies acted out in multiple forums of contemporary legality. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.

Peter Goodrich is a professor of law at Cardozo School of Law (Yeshiva University), and a visiting professor in the Division of Social Science, New York University Abu Dhabi. His most recent excursus was Vision in Decision (2023).

Anna Jayne Kimmel is an assistant professor of dance and affiliate faculty at the Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service at George Washington University. She is an associate editor at Performance Research and a board member of Performance Studies international. Her scholarship appears in Dance Research Journal, Performance Research, Lateral, The Drama Review, and The Brooklyn Rail, as well as various edited volumes.

Bernadette Meyler is the Carl and Sheila Spaeth Professor of Law at Stanford University. She is the author of Theaters of Pardoning and a coeditor of The Oxford Handbook of Law and Humanities.