Kent LLM students have enjoyed a unique opportunity to explore The British Museum in London on a ‘Legal Treasure Tour’.
The tour, organised by Kent Law School academics Professor Amanda Perry-Kessaris, Dr Lisa Dickson and Dr Sophie Vigneron allowed students to spend the day examining objects with a culturally and historically significant legal dimension.
Professor Perry-Kessaris said: ‘The purpose of the event is to explore law through objects, and objects through law. It builds on the premise that objects are useful sources of both information and inspiration.’
Law School staff guided students through an exploration of six specific objects at the Museum that included:
- The Sutton Hoo Sceptre
- The Standard of Ur from Iraq
- A Bronze Bell from China
- The Pillar of Ashoka from India
- The Throne of Weapons from Mozambique
- and a UK coin defaced by Suffragettes
Later in the day, students were tasked with selecting one item of their own to sketch and recreate in fimo clay before presenting them to their guides. Between them, the students selected: a Dutch Indonesian finger press; an Uzbekh-Iranian painting; an Egyptian-Cypriot ring; and British-Nigerian mantillas.
Professor Perry-Kessaris has been developing the concept of a tour of archives for legal academics for several years. She explains the evolution of the ‘Legal Treasure Tour’ in more detail in a post on her blog Approaching the econo-socio-legal. More images (and video clips) from this year’s Legal Treasure Tour are also available on Professor Perry-Kessaris’s blog).
