Whose courtroom?

During terrorism trials courtrooms are not merely physical settings for legal proceedings in which truth and evidence are negotiated and sentences are passed. They are also places in which participants and spectators negotiate relations and positions, as well as attempt to continue their routines and uphold their values, opinions and points of views.

In the new article “Whose courtroom? Observations from terrorism trials” published in the edited volume 'Lived Space. Reconsidering Transnationalism among Muslim Minorities' Ann-Sophie Hemmingsen draws on Tim Cresswell and Doreen Massey's theorizing on human geography to analyze observations from Danish courtrooms during terrorism trials. The article shows how what might appear to be inappropriate or even incomprehensible behaviour if viewed solely as bystanders' or participants' reactions and responses to legal proceedings in the neutral and highly institutionalized setting of courtrooms becomes less inappropriate and incomprehensible and much more interesting when viewed as more than that.

Ann-Sophie Hemmingsen “Whose Courtroom? Observations from terrorism trials” in Jakob Egholm Feldt & Kirstine Sinclair (eds.), 2011, Lived Space. Reconsidering Transnationalism among Muslim Minorities, Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main