Embodying Law in the Garden: An Autoethnographic Account of an Office of Law

Abstract

Based on an autoethnographical study of the office of the tingsnotarie this article questions the relation between the ethical self and the act of taking up a judicial office, employing the question of how I can live with (my) law. While the office and the ethical self are kept apart, often by recourse to persona, I make a case for the attendance to the self in examinations of ethical responsibility when pursuing an office of law. I propose that the garden, and in particular the practices and notions of (en)closure, (loss of) direction, cultivation, (dis)order, authorship and care-for-the-other which are all part of the gardener’s everyday life and vocation, offers critical insights when thinking through the embodiment of law and the relationship between the ethical self and the office.

Keywords: autoethnography, ethics, self, persona, office of law, legal theory, embodyment, garden, judges, legal culture, spatial justice

JEL Classification: K40