CfP: Special Issue of the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law, "Legal Evidence and the Problem of Visuality: Post-Textualities and Jurisvisions"

 

Pix credit here

I am delighted to pass along this CfP for a special issue of the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law I am a member of the international advisory board) with the theme: Legal Evidence and the Problem of Visuality: Post-Textualities and Jurisvisions. It will be hosted by the University of Coimbra Institute for Legal Research (UCILeR) with great thanks to its coordinating board: José Manuel Aroso Linhares (President of the Coordinating Board); Maria João Antunes; Ana Margarida Simões Gaudêncio; Dulce Lopes; and Fernando Vannier Borges. The theme is quite interesting:

Between the 7th and 9th of May 2025, the University of Coimbra Institute for Legal Research (UCILeR) hosted the 25th Roundtable for the Semiotics of Law, dedicated to the theme of Legal Evidence, with particular attention to its articulations in technosocieties and its critical-reflexive potential within the field of visual jurisprudence.

This special issue follows the second trajectory opened by the Roundtable, drawing on the insight that visual evidence invites a methodological turn toward jurisvision—the juridical construction of visuality. In this context, it focuses on the evidentiary function and significance of images and interrogates the phenomenological, normative, epistemic, and rhetorical dimensions and implications of visual meaning-making in interpretation and adjudication. Rather than reaffirming the familiar place of textuality—and yielding to its dominance over other modes of constituting and conveying legal meaning—the issue turns to the shifting conditions of evidentiary discourse and to a critical reframing of juridical truth amid the rise of post-textual practices and performances. It explores the unfolding dynamics and practical-normative potentials of post-textuality—the visual, imagistic, and non-verbal juridical forms—within the «semiotic dance» of the contemporary videosphere.

The full CfP appears below and may also be accessed HERE.

 

Legal Evidence And The Problem Of Visuality: Post-Textualities and Jurisvisions

Participating journal: International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique

Open for submissions

Submission deadline31 August 2025

Between the 7th and 9th of May 2025, the University of Coimbra Institute for Legal Research (UCILeR) hosted the 25th Roundtable for the Semiotics of Law, dedicated to the theme of Legal Evidence, with particular attention to its articulations in technosocieties and its critical-reflexive potential within the field of visual jurisprudence.

This special issue follows the second trajectory opened by the Roundtable, drawing onthe insight that visual evidence invites a methodological turn toward jurisvision—the juridical construction of visuality. In this context, it focuses on the evidentiary function and significance of images and interrogates the phenomenological, normative, epistemic, and rhetorical dimensions and implications of visual meaning-making in interpretation and adjudication. Rather than reaffirming the familiar place of textuality—and yielding to its dominance over other modes of constituting and conveying legal meaning—the issue turns to the shifting conditions of evidentiary discourse and to a critical reframing of juridical truth amid the rise of post-textual practices and performances. It explores the unfolding dynamics and practical-normative potentials of post-textuality—the visual, imagistic, and non-verbal juridical forms—within the «semiotic dance» of the contemporary videosphere (Goodrich).

Within the framework of the central question—how can juridical visuality be construed?—several critical questions arise, including:

• What is an image? Can we make an objective statement about what an image truly depicts? Is it possible to make an analytic judgment about the truth or falsity of an image or its content?

• What specific issues emerge, at both dogmatic and meta-dogmatic levels, when images—in their diverse appearances and manifestations—are employed as forensic evidence?

• Is visual "evidence" demonstrative? What does – and does not – an image prove? Can images be interpreted literally, as straightforward references to facts? Can they be textualized? Do they have documental value?

• Can images, pictures or visual performances serve as hermeneutic devices? What does it mean to interpret an image in legal and forensic contexts? How do images convey meaning, whether legal or otherwise?

• Can images be tamed? Can legal discourse genuinely regulate visual performances in the visual era, according to pre-established disciplinary and dogmatic boundaries and standards?

• How should the relationship between evidentiary images and the broader body of evidence be understood? Are images independent entities to be viewed in isolation, or must they be seen within the context of other images and events?

• How does the increasing presence of visual images in the courtroom affect normative standards and legal methodology?

• Should the perception of images be viewed as an interruption in traditional legal discourse, a call for new analytical tools and structuring criteria?

• How can visual discourse, image theory, and aesthetics illuminate the connection between visual practice(s) and legal discourse(s)?

• How does the rise of new mass media, digital, and virtual experiences influence the materiality of legal evidence?

• What changes does the understanding of visual proof entail in the digital era? How should the relationship between digital images and material reality be framed, particularly in relation to juridically relevant realities?

• Does the use of visual evidence open the door to an aesthetic and visual turn in legal narrative? What is the relationship between legal images and the narrative paradigm? Do images reinforce or challenge the role of narrative rationality?

Submission Guidelines

Contributors are invited to submit abstracts of up to 300 words by August 31, 2025 to bpaim@fd.uc.pt

• Notification of abstract acceptance: September 30, 2025

• Deadline for full paper submission: February 28, 2026