Das rhetorische Ensemble

Abstract

While it is trivial to state that law is communicated by means of media, it is not trivial to state that the media of law is neither the proper nor the improper of laws’ proprium. The considerations on the limit of juridicial sense, once dominated by hermeneutics, are nowadays altered by a focus on the speciality of a media – e.g. the printing revolution, the rise of newly founded journals and the oral tradition. There is an old, always renewed conflict around the borders of legal systems. The thesis that modern rational abstraction of law is threatened by the postmodern iconic turn and its invasion of images has become very popular and widespread. The essay argues that humanistic instructions are the key scripts in the genealogy of media – and leave us with a better understanding of the iconic turn. The categories to understand medial transformation of law are to be found in the intersections of rhetoric and system – rooted in humanism. The essay therefore introduces a historical enquiry by Heiner Mühlmann on Leon Battista Alberti. It is to give an example from the horizon on which the ideas about media of law are to be seen.