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Political-Legal Geography Durham E-Theses Understanding the Legal Constitution of a Riot: An Evental Genealogy SCHOFIELD, VANESSA,FAYE How to cite: SCHOFIELD, VANESSA,FAYE (2019) Understanding the Legal Constitution of a Riot: An Evental Genealogy, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/13327/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Understanding the Legal Constitution of a Riot: An Evental Genealogy Vanessa Schofield Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Geography, Durham University 2019 i ii Abstract Understanding the Legal Constitution of a Riot: An Evental Genealogy This thesis considers the constitution of a riot as an event that ruptures. The aim of the thesis is to use an evental theoretical framework to develop a novel understanding of the constitution of a riot, in response to the absence of sustained theoretical reflection on riots, specifically following events in 2011, and England’s so called ‘summer of disorder’. The absence of theoretical reflection on the constitution of riots in much existing riot research follows from the centrality of questions of causality within it, such as: what caused the breakdown of law and order? Existing work rushes to respond to specific events, to explain causality, in a way that quells concern over the destabilisation that the breakdown of law and order generates. The thesis begins by posing the alternative, more contemplative and critical question: what is a riot? Drawing on evental theory, the thesis develops a conceptualisation of the riot as a particular kind of transgression; a transgression of the aesthetic faultline in the world (Badiou, 2008; Shaw, 2012). This is the line that regulates what can and cannot appear in the world. To develop an understanding of the constitution of the riot as a transgression of the aesthetic faultline in the world, the thesis traces the drawing and policing of this line through history, specifically in the legal domain, through legal archival work. It takes a historical approach in order to develop understanding of the historical constitution of this line, and how it has been policed during different instances of disorder, such as in Orgreave 1984-5, for example. iii iv Table of Contents 1. England’s Summer of Disorder: Did a Riot Take Place? ............................................................ 1 1.1 What is a riot? Turning to think about the constitution of riot ....................................... 1 The constitution of riot as event .......................................................................................................... 3 The legal governance of riot ................................................................................................................. 4 1.2 A genealogical approach: thinking otherwise about riots .................................................. 6 1.3 Research aims ............................................................................................................................... 7 1.4 Thinking otherwise to the riot as an ephemeral eruption: iconography and the framing of riots .................................................................................................................................... 8 1.5 Genealogy, aspectival captivity and critique ........................................................................ 13 Excess ................................................................................................................................................... 16 A Spectacle ........................................................................................................................................... 19 1.6 The event trap: a literature review on riots ....................................................................... 22 1.7 Avoiding the event trap ............................................................................................................ 27 1.8 Chapter overviews .................................................................................................................... 30 2. Theory and Event: From Causation to Constitution ............................................................... 34 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 34 2.2 On the need for theory ............................................................................................................ 35 2.3 The limits of reading events .................................................................................................... 38 2.4 The event in political geography: evental governance ...................................................... 40 2.5 Embracing, anticipating and surviving events ....................................................................... 45 2.6 Governing to limit events ........................................................................................................ 48 2.7 A return to the eruptive moment through evental theory ............................................. 49 2.8 Conclusion: the constitution of riot as rupture ................................................................. 51 3. Evental Rupture: The Riot as a Transgression of the Laws of the World .......................... 53 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 53 3.2 Understanding rupture ............................................................................................................. 54 3.3 Scope of engagement with evental thought ......................................................................... 57 v 3.4 Badiou’s event and thinking riot as event ............................................................................ 59 3.5 Spatiality and event: disruptive politics and intensity of appearance ............................. 63 3.6 Temporality and event: a boundedness to the kairological ............................................. 67 3.7 Engaging history and event: a clash of temporalities ......................................................... 71 3.8 Conclusion: engaging history and event through a study of the aesthetic faultline in the world ............................................................................................................................................ 74 4. Engaging History and Event through the Legal Archive .......................................................... 76 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 76 4.2 Why only the archive can save us from the absence of emergency ............................. 78 4.3 Derrida and the duality of arkhē: commencement and commandment....................... 81 4.4 Taking and translating theory into the archive ................................................................... 82 4.5 Imaginary, actionability and law .............................................................................................. 85 4.6 The legal history of riot ........................................................................................................... 88 4.7 The application of riot legislation: legal ethnography and riot ...................................... 96 4.8 The presentation of genealogy: infrastructures of sense and archival scenes........... 103 4.9 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 104 5. Persons Riotously and Tumultuously Assembled: On Whether a Riot Took Place ...... 106 Archival scene: The Mayor’s Office For Policing And Crime (“MOPAC”) v Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co (Europe) Ltd & Others (“Mitsui”) [2016] UKSC 18. ............... 106 5.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 106 5.2 Context to the case ................................................................................................................ 109 5.3 Cases as scenes of inquiry in legal geography ................................................................... 114 Re-enactment of the event and the creativity of law .................................................................... 117 5.4 What is a riot? .......................................................................................................................... 122 5.5 Riot Act 1714 ........................................................................................................................... 124 Disturbance of the publick peace...................................................................................................
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