Legal sightseeing signals a widespread eventisation of international law. We look at international law and wonder how it presents itself to ‘the public’, and in turn ask what that public shows up for. We notice that art is often resorted to as mediator in this encounter.
Legal sightseeing explores international law’s images, stories and audiences. We ask: How is international law presented? Where? To whom? And, on the side of the audience: Who is seeing it? What is actually seen? How is it experienced? Our method is to look, and look again. On this website, we invite you to look with us.
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The Team
Renske Vos is assistant professor in international law at VU Amsterdam. Her research: ‘Europe and the Sea of Stories’ engages with ways in which EU officials view, narrate, and make (no) sense of their work on a specific migration response. Interests include: institutional architecture, socio-legal studies and ways of visualising law.
Sofia Stolk is senior researcher at the T.M.C. Asser Insituut in The Hague. Her current research project, entitled ‘Justice needs to be seen to be done: The International Legal Landscape in a Visual Age’, studies the use of visual means within international courts and tribunals and the proliferation of images about international law.
Mark Drumbl is Professor at Washington and Lee University, School of Law. His research and teaching interests include public international law, global environmental governance, international criminal law, post-conflict justice, and transnational legal process.
Miriam Bak McKenna is Associate Professor in Law and Global Governance at Roskilde Universitet.
Nhat-Minh N. Le is currently an external PhD Candidate at VU Amsterdam. His PhD research focuses on the construction of victimhood through the practice of inclusion-exclusion by international criminal tribunals.
Dion Kramer works as assistant professor in EU law at VU Amsterdam. He specialises in the law and politics of European integration and is a frequent visiter of the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Bart van Klink is Professor of Legal Methodology at VU Amsterdam. He publishes on topics such as the role of authority in law, radical temporality, law and resistance, law and language, populism and the rhetorical justification of exceptional measures in situations of war and in the fight against terrorism.
Nina Krijnen is a member of the diplomatic staff at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She has previously been our correspondent in New York during her time as Advisor to the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Nations.
Carla Wikkerman has a background in behavioural science and educational studies (University of Amsterdam). She draws on decades of experience engaging photography in legal sightseeing.
Ben Stolk holds a degree in fine arts from The Hague’s Royal Academy of Arts and the AHK in Amsterdam. He is a visual artist working both on 2D and 3D pieces. His often colourful paintings and collages aim at capturing a specific atmosphere and experiment with movement and space.
Are you legal sightseeing?
We welcome guest posts on this website.
You can get in touch with us via r.n.vos@vu.nl or s.stolk@asser.nl