International Law in the Picture: images, advocacy and stardust of justice

The Gift, by Navid Nuur (2016), permanent installation in front of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

How do we visualize international law, why, and for whom? What happens when an artist sets up an international tribunal? How does international (criminal) law construct celebrity and represent celebrities? We will discuss these and more questions on international law and visual culture in an interdisciplinary conversation between Immi Tallgren (University of Helsinki/LSE), senior lecturer of international law and senior fellow, and Asser researcher Sofia Stolk. The conversation will be guided by images, film excerpts and artwork.

During the event, we will unveil the artwork ‘Tower of International Law’ by Anne-Tjerk Mante. The artist will be present to introduce his work.

Immi Tallgren is Senior Lecturer of International Law at the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights at the University of Helsinki, and Senior Visiting Fellow at the Centre for International Studies, London School of Economics. Her research interests and publications reach from international criminal law to history and sociology of international law, law and film, and legal anthropology. In this conversation, we will draw, amongst other things, on her recent work the TV series Tokyo Trials (London Review of International Law), The Power of Images and International Criminal Justice (International Criminal Law Review) and her current project on Celebrity in and by International Law.

Anne-Tjerk Mante is a multidisciplinary artist. His works include paintings and sculptures as well as poetry, music and theatre. He studied at The Hague Royal Academy of Art and Ars Aemula Naturae, Leiden. Before this, he completed a degree in International Law at Leiden University. His artistic and academic backgrounds are united in the sculpture ‘Tower of International Law’. The tower has previously been exhibited in e.g. the Peace Palace in The Hague.

Sofia Stolk is Researcher at the Asser Institute and Research Fellow at the Centre for the Politics of Transnational Law. Her current research project is entitled ‘Visualizing International Law’ and focuses on the use of visual means within international courts and tribunals and the proliferation of images about international law. Over the past years, she has been involved in the organisation of the Movies that Matter Festival, specifically as the coordinator of the ‘Camera Justitia programme’ on films about international law and justice.