Ideology of Courtroom

After 90s, when Francis Fukuyama announced the end of history and the neo-liberal democracy was the only solution for eastern-european countries liberated from the domination of the Soviet Union, it appeard that the problem of ideology was gone forever. It soon turned out, thanks to the growing consumerism, postmodern terrorism and unpredictable economy, that we can't interpret the modern world without reference to some concept of ideology. At the same time the theory of the law is still running away from this concept. Perhaps legal discourse is afraid that any critical theory ultimately reduses law to the economic base (inspired by Marx) or the flow of libido (inspired by Freud). But according to Slavoj Zizek ideology is the specter that lurks everywhere. Even in the toilet. Even in the courtroom.

This paper is a attempt to show the structural elements of this courtroom-specter. Using lacanian-zizkenian tools I will try to examine the Imaginary, Symbolic and Real levels of courtroom, that escapes everyday consciousness and at the same time are the conditions of possibility of that consciousness. This approach raises some important questions. If trial is a theater, who is the spectator – the Great Other ? What is its object of desire – the object small a ? Finally, psychoanalysis in the courtroom is only a therapy or it immediately becomes a politic ?