ABSTRACT
Traditionally, legal dramas deal with justice and power in a more or less realistic way. Images of Law also argue for a new kind of trial, one 'made possible by the refusal of radicals to accept traditional courtroom roles, rules and rituals'. Moreover, 'the audience, usually passive, is brought into the drama' or at least invited in through the creative exploitation of contemporary moral, personal and political issues. In the tradition of scholarship around the semiotics of law this resonates with the seminal work of Bankowski and Mungham. In this work, attention is drawn to the implicit political values and power structures in the law, especially in relation to lawyers and the court room trial. The law is traditionally public, at least the tradition stemming from Attic Greece. The public were expected to decide on cases.
