The cartographic body in crisis
- Seminar
- 764, Apr, 2023: p.23-27
This article explores the constitutive role of cartography in enabling law, situating maps as foundational instruments of legal authority. By imaging the extent of territorial jurisdiction and circumscribing the limits of the law of the land—known in common law as the legend terrace—cartography becomes a practice of ordering and representation that visually establishes legal boundaries. The paper argues that the “cartographic body” is in crisis, as traditional mapping practices struggle to accommodate shifting notions of sovereignty, globalization, and contested territorial claims. Through a critical lens, the study highlights how cartography is not merely descriptive but constitutive, shaping the very framework within which law operates. Published in Seminar, the article underscores the need to interrogate the relationship between visual representation and legal authority, emphasizing that maps are both instruments of power and sites of contestation. Cartography enables law. As a first constitutive, act of imaging the extent of territorial jurisdiction, of circumscribing the limit of the law of the land, known in the common law as the legend terrace, cartography is a form and practice of ordering and representing that welcomes, and visually establishhses, the law. – Reproduced