Book Reviews: Indigenous People, Crime and Punishment
| DOI | 10.1177/0964663915575630c |
| Date | 01 June 2015 |
| Published date | 01 June 2015 |
| Author | Heather Douglas |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
produced when Cavellat retired and many are reworkings of his earlier sketches made
when he was working in court. Herz draws attention to the fact that Cavellat returns
to the mysterious female stranger in the public gallery who caught his eye in one of his
trials. In the earlier sketch (figure 59, p. 77), the figure is fully clothed and placed cen-
trally in the picture. When he returns to the sketch in the painting he undresses the stran-
ger and this, Herz suggests, may be Cavellat’s way of representing his conscience or his
superego or his subconscious representation of naked truth (figure 72, p. 93). The
remainder of the chapter is focused on what the paintings tell us of Cavellat’s attitude
towards female judges. It is clear that he holds his female counterparts in great disdain,
portraying them as easily distracted (figure 86, p. 104, depicts three female judges, one
of whom is knitting, one of whom is putting on lipstick and one of whom has no identity
because he has chosen to blur her features) and unsuitable for the profession (in figure
87, p. 105, we see stereotypes of female coquetry which Herz identifies as Cavellat’s
commentary on female judges having little rigour, impartiality, rationality or authority).
This Herz uses as a point of departure to reveal that she too was treated in a similar fash-
ion as a young judge in Germany where, she tells us, she was treated with disdain, being
reduced by many of her colleagues to the status of ‘lucky charm’ of the court.
The Art of Justice is a real joy to read not least because in including so many of
Cavellat’s drawings and paintings, Herz offers insight without relying solely on the writ-
ten word. By carefully selecting the images from his collection, she has revealed how
social attitudes, personal experiences and inner feelings played a central role in Pierre
Cavellat’s career as a judge. Above all, this book teaches us that empathy and insight are
powerful catalysts in the art of judgecraft.
JENNY SCOTT
University of Glasgow, UK
References
Duncanson K and Henderson E (2014) Narrative, theatre, and the disruptive potential of jury direc-
tions in rape trials. Feminist Legal Studies 22: 155–174.
Moran LJ (2012) Every picture speaks a thousand words: Visualizing judicial authority in the
press. In: Gisler P, Borella SS and Weidmar C (eds) Intersections of Law and Culture.
Hampshire and New York: Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 31–49.
Mulcahy L (2011) Legal Architecture – Justice, due process and the place of law. Oxon,
New York: Routledge.
THALIA ANTHONY, Indigenous People, Crime and Punishment. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2013,
pp. 248, ISBN 9780415668446, £80 (hbk).
Australia’s indigenous people continueto be disproportionately incarcerated in Australian
prisons. Since 2000, the imprisonmentrate of indigenous people has increasedby 59%for
indigenous women and 35%for indigenous men (Steering Committee for the Review
Book Reviews 321
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