Law, Registration, and the State: Making Identities through Space, Place, and Movement

This book explores the dynamic process of registration, challenging the assumption that it is a textually mediated act of statecraft. It develops movement as a socio-legal method to illustrate the legal, social, and bureaucratic layers of movement in everyday engagements with the law. It presents empirical and theoretical analysis of historical, contemporary, and future-oriented places of registration, arguing for an understanding of registration as evolving, socially constructed, and shaped by spatial imaginaries. The book appeals to a sociolegal, critical legal, and legal geography readership, as well as those in other disciplines concerned with materiality, movement, and statecraft.

Format: Hardback
Length: 128 pages
Publication date: 28 July 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This groundbreaking book offers a fresh and insightful examination of registration as a dynamic process that shapes and reshapes legal identities. While critical legal and socio-legal scholarship often posits registration as a textually mediated act of statecraft governed by the technology of writing, this book takes a different approach. It develops movement as a socio-legal method to illustrate the intricate legal, social, and bureaucratic layers that unfold in everyday interactions with the law.

The book presents a comprehensive empirical and theoretical analysis of historical, contemporary, and future-oriented places of registration, including a community hub, a city of pilgrimage, and the General Register Office. Drawing from a diverse range of perspectives, including anthropology, geography, sociology, architecture, and mobility studies, the book argues for a nuanced understanding of registration as an evolving, socially constructed, and spatially shaped phenomenon.

By adopting a mobile perspective on registration, the book expands conceptual discussions of legal materiality and opens up possibilities for legal identities that are not constrained by the assumed desirability of stability or endurance. This interdisciplinary book will appeal to a wide readership, including sociolegal scholars, critical legal scholars, legal geographers, and those interested in materiality, movement, and statecraft.

In conclusion, this book provides a valuable contribution to the study of registration as a socio-legal phenomenon. By adopting a mobile perspective and exploring the diverse spatial dimensions of registration, it offers a fresh and innovative approach to understanding the legal, social, and bureaucratic complexities of identity formation. It will be of interest to scholars and practitioners across a range of disciplines.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032261034