The book edited by Giovanni Rossi and Pietro Schirò (opening the 'Immagini, Diritto e Storia' series directed by Rossi himself) is a collaborative effort that owes its overall value first of all to its editors drawing on their long-standing academic background in the Law and Humanities field. Notably, they sought to explore the intertwining of law, power, and images in the nineteenth century, sparking a broad international debate through the conference (held in Verona, 19-21 October 2022) which gave rise to the book and nurtured its truly appreciable diversity of contents and perspectives.
This plurality has been appropriately structured by the editors into four sections: ‘The Representation of Power', 'Revolutions, Laws, Art', 'The Force of Law and the Tyranny of Power’, and ‘Tangible Forms of Law'. Rossi's introduction ('A proposito di immagini e di diritto. Un percorso tra visual culture e storia legale', 9-31) helps clarify this inner structure and is, at the same time, an integral part of the volume, serving as both a 'map for sailors' and a toolbox for the reader: It is indeed a substantial introduction, which can also be considered partly programmatic. According to Rossi's introduction, the image (artistic or not) takes on an important heuristic value, as a vehicle, a medium of ideas, concepts, and values connected to law and power, if not also an essential part of an affirmative or negative narrative of power itself. The 'gamble' that animates the scientific and editorial project of the conference and book is that of 'guaranteeing depth and historical interpretation to an aspect as pervasive as it is often underestimated, such as that of the translation into images of the values and myths of law and power. In other words, the aim is 'laying bare the colossal operation of […]
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DOI: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2049677X.2026.2671634
