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30 Int'l J. Semiotics L. 1 (2017)

handle is hein.journals/intjsemi30 and id is 1 raw text is: Int J Semiot Law (2017) 30:1-22 DOI 10.1007/si 1196-016-9477-6 CrossMrk F#ck Your Family!: The Visual Jurisprudence of Automobility Kylie Doyle' - Kieran Tranterl Published online: 9 April 2016 © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016 Abstract This paper considers the popular visual jurisprudence of bumper stickers. Drawing upon a sample sticker/driver/vehicle assemblages observed at the Gold Coast, Australia in 2014, we argue that the meanings and messages projected by the assemblages have a significant legal dimension. The argument is located at the intersection of past research into bumper stickers, increased scholarly interest in the relation of law to automobility and especially recent considerations of the popular visual jurisprudence of the motor vehicle, its cultures and semiotics. In particular we argue that the sticker/driver/vehicle assemblage represents an engagement with law and legality. We suggest this goes beyond immediate denotations of brands with intellectual property or flags and the sovereign nation state to more essential engagement with consumer capitalisms law of the image, the friend/enemy distinc- tion, the ouroboros of rights and the essential legality of living in a polis. Keywords Visual jurisprudence - Automobility - Bumper stickers - Australia 1 Introduction The streetscape is full of representations, some authorised and legal, others disruptive and obscene. The semiotics of the official signs and signals of automobility-the dotted line, the traffic light-has begun to be considered by an emerging discipline of visual jurisprudence [61-63]. Parallel to this scholars have begun to explore how the cultural meanings of the motor vehicle, often prejudicial and unwarranted, seep into the juridical determinations of rights and entitlements ® Kieran Tranter k.tranter@griffith.edu.au School of Criminology and Criminal Justice; Griffith Law School, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia I_ Springer