Presenting perspectives on legal theory and practice, this volume examines how visual images of the law influence interpretation and execution of the law in ways not discernible from written texts.

Anne Wagner, is an Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics., Université du Littoral Cÿte d'Opale, France. She is the President of the International Roundtables for the Semiotics of Law and board member of the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law (Springer). Her main research interests include legal language, law and semiotics, contemporary legal theory, law and literature. She is one of the co-editors of Contemporary Issues of the Semiotics of Law (2005, Hart Publishing, London), and editors of special issues published in the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law. She has also published extensively on these issues in a variety of scholarly venues. William Pencak is Professor of History at Penn State University, USA. He received his Ph.D. degree from Columbia University in New York City in 1978. Although his major field is early United States history, he has written extensively on semiotics and served as President of the Semiotic Society of America in 2000-2001.

Contents: Introduction, William Pencak and Anne Wagner. Part 1 Images of Law: Deep structures of Empire: a note on imperial machines and bodies, Ronnie Lippens; Intervention and the new imagery of World Order, Wouter G. Werner; Key words in Chinese law, Deborah Cao; Visual semiotics of court dress in England and Wales: failed or successful vector of professional identity?, Shaeda Isani; The drama of the courtroom, Annabelle Mooney; Digital visual and multimedia software and the reshaping of legal knowledge, Neal Feigenson; A Las Meninas for the law, Christina Spiesel. Part 2 Legal Language in Action: Legal language in action: raising basic awareness about and understanding of competing legal systems in the legal classroom, Nicola M. Langton; Discourses of the ideal and the actual in the courtroom: the conflict for jurors in 'making sense' of general instructions, Philip Gaines; Jurors' recorded deliberations: an analysis, Paul Robertshaw; 'Let me see your hands': the grammar of physical control in police directives, Philip C. H. Shon; Images of the Irish family: a 'slightly' constitutional arrangement, Sophie Cacciaguidi-Fahy; Images of racial discrimination in France, Anne Wagner; Law's trouble with images: fetishism and seduction from Athens and Jerusalem to Madison Avenue, Robert A Yelle. Bibliography; Index.