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30 Int'l J. Semiotics L. 1 (2017)

handle is hein.journals/intjsemi30 and id is 1 raw text is: Int J Semiot Law (2017) 30:1-22
DOI 10.1007/si 1196-016-9477-6                                       CrossMrk
F#ck Your Family!: The Visual Jurisprudence
of Automobility
Kylie Doyle' - Kieran Tranterl
Published online: 9 April 2016
© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016
Abstract This paper considers the popular visual jurisprudence of bumper stickers.
Drawing upon a sample sticker/driver/vehicle assemblages observed at the Gold
Coast, Australia in 2014, we argue that the meanings and messages projected by the
assemblages have a significant legal dimension. The argument is located at the
intersection of past research into bumper stickers, increased scholarly interest in the
relation of law to automobility and especially recent considerations of the popular
visual jurisprudence of the motor vehicle, its cultures and semiotics. In particular we
argue that the sticker/driver/vehicle assemblage represents an engagement with law
and legality. We suggest this goes beyond immediate denotations of brands with
intellectual property or flags and the sovereign nation state to more essential
engagement with consumer capitalisms law of the image, the friend/enemy distinc-
tion, the ouroboros of rights and the essential legality of living in a polis.
Keywords Visual jurisprudence - Automobility - Bumper stickers - Australia
1 Introduction
The streetscape is full of representations, some authorised and legal, others
disruptive and obscene. The semiotics of the official signs and signals of
automobility-the dotted line, the traffic light-has begun to be considered by an
emerging discipline of visual jurisprudence [61-63]. Parallel to this scholars have
begun to explore how the cultural meanings of the motor vehicle, often prejudicial
and unwarranted, seep into the juridical determinations of rights and entitlements
® Kieran Tranter
k.tranter@griffith.edu.au
School of Criminology and Criminal Justice; Griffith Law School, Griffith University,
Gold Coast, QLD, Australia

I_ Springer

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