2023-24. Media Appearances (in Dutch)

On account of my work on the Dutch Sovereign Citizens, I am frequently asked to comment on recent developments in this field, for instance on the recent trial of some German Reichsbürger, who have been charged with preparing a coup attempt. For some of these media appearances, see here (EenVandaag), here (nu.nl), here (WOS), here (UKrant; photo to the left) and here for a podcast (SSR). I have also been interviewed on my book project about the witness, in a series called "The Breakthrough"; that interview can be found here.

2024. The Artifice of the Scales (in Dutch). 

Part II of The Ass Carrying Relics: on Judicial Symbols and Trust in the Judiciary. 

In this blog-series, I discuss the why of courtroom symbols. These contributions illustrate the importance of symbols and ritual in legitimating the exercise of judicial power. Collectively, the series argues that these symbols are of great value in a time of eroding institutional trust. In this second part (“The Artifice of the Scales”), I discuss the scales of justice. This symbol, I show, promises a mechanical weighing of factors: crime against punishment, for example. In so doing, it elides the degree to which any equation is in fact discursively constructed by the judge. It elides, in short, the extent to which judgment is the fallible and vulnerable affair of humans, not of machines. 

2023. Adam's Wig (in Dutch). 

Part I of The Ass Carrying Relics: on Judicial Symbols and Trust in the Judiciary.

In this first part of a blog-series on the importance of symbols and ritual in legitimating the exercise of judicial power, I discuss the judicial robe. Judicial investiture, I show, aims to cover up the arbitrariness which is always implied when someone exercises authority over another. Clad in robes, the judge is not longer that other person, but a different being altogether.

2023. Sovereignty, Masks, and the Social Contract: on the Rights of “Sovereign Citizens” (in Dutch).

This blogpost discusses increasing tensions between self-designated “sovereign persons” and public order, paying especial attention to the claim that legal “personhood” is constituted by a “second, legal birth”. In appraising the argument’s philosophical and historical purchase, the post looks to facilitate mutual understanding and hopes to take the sting out of an increasing societal concern.