The dysfunctional town and the social contract: Figures of violence in the liberal legal imaginary

van Rijswijk, H

The dysfunctional town and the social contract: Figures of violence in the liberal legal imaginary

van Rijswijk, H

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Publication Type:: Chapter
Citation:: Law, Cinema, and the Ill City: Imagining Justice and Order in Real and Fictional Cities, 2019, pp. 42 - 53
Issue Date:: 2019-01-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	van Rijswijk, H https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9180-0078	en_US
dc.date.issued	2019-01-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Law, Cinema, and the Ill City: Imagining Justice and Order in Real and Fictional Cities, 2019, pp. 42 - 53	en_US
dc.identifier.isbn	9781138337619	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/138646
dc.description.abstract	© 2020 selection and editorial matter, Anne Wagner and Le Cheng; individual chapters, the contributors. This chapter examines the relationship of the related figures of social contract and dysfunctional town, and how they explicate law’s role in historical violence. It also argues that Dogville essentially concerned with the relationship between representation and contract – both the social contract and the individual contractual arrangements that are key to contemporary legal and social life. Dogville tells the story of Grace Margaret Mulligan, a young woman on the run, who flees a corrupt, mafia-run city and comes upon an isolated town. At first glance, the town seems wholesome and kindly. The year is 1933: the mines have closed and there is no money. There is nothing innovative about a community dehumanizing an outsider. But Dogville is innovative in the way it stages the framing of this dehumanization: rather than a naturalistic slide into violence, the film frames Grace’s treatment by the town as an effect of moral and legal technique.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Law, Cinema, and the Ill City: Imagining Justice and Order in Real and Fictional Cities	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.4324/9780429442254-5	en_US
dc.title	The dysfunctional town and the social contract: Figures of violence in the liberal legal imaginary	en_US
dc.type	Chapter
utslib.for	1801 Law	en_US
utslib.for	1902 Film, Television and Digital Media	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Law
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - LRC - Law Research Centre
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US

Abstract:

© 2020 selection and editorial matter, Anne Wagner and Le Cheng; individual chapters, the contributors. This chapter examines the relationship of the related figures of social contract and dysfunctional town, and how they explicate law’s role in historical violence. It also argues that Dogville essentially concerned with the relationship between representation and contract – both the social contract and the individual contractual arrangements that are key to contemporary legal and social life. Dogville tells the story of Grace Margaret Mulligan, a young woman on the run, who flees a corrupt, mafia-run city and comes upon an isolated town. At first glance, the town seems wholesome and kindly. The year is 1933: the mines have closed and there is no money. There is nothing innovative about a community dehumanizing an outsider. But Dogville is innovative in the way it stages the framing of this dehumanization: rather than a naturalistic slide into violence, the film frames Grace’s treatment by the town as an effect of moral and legal technique.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:

http://hdl.handle.net/10453/138646