Theory and Aesthetics of Tribunalization

December 3, 2024:
Lecture by Lisa Stuckey, lecture series Heritage in Transformation, winter semester 2024/25, Centre for Advanced Study inherit, based at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Tribunalization is a multi-faceted and ambiguous notion, as it can be used to describe explicit references to tribunal formats as well as occurrences of tribunalization in different (media) milieus and societal spheres more generally. Numerous people’s tribunals have inscribed themselves in a certain tradition of the Russell Tribunal, constituted 1966 on the occasion of the Vietnam War. Although differing in content, context, procedure, and format, these tribunals often pass non-binding judgments, exercise advisory functions, rely on soft law mechanisms, or do remembrance work. Within and beyond this genealogy, tribunals can transform value. At present, this can be seen, for instance, in the Tribunal Unraveling the NSU-Complex that decenters the west or the International Rights of Nature Tribunal that decenters the human. Engagements with value creation and transformation can also be observed within politicized contemporary arts, with theatres, museums, and other platforms hosting tribunals, like in the case of the theatrical Vienna Trials (Milo Rau) or the more-than-human Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes (Radha D’Souza and Jonas Staal). Such tribunals draw from scenes and scripts of various social and legal cultural realms. Hence, this lecture aims to study contemporary tribunalizations as transversal phenomena. With the objective of theory development and aesthetic analysis, art historical, cultural scientific, and legal theoretical perspective will be intertwined.