Chapter 14 The Work of Peace: World War One, Justice and Translation Through Art

What work do we want law to be doing, and what work do we want to do with law and the records of war? In considering the ‘peace through law’ offered by the Treaty of Versailles, the peace treaty that formally ended the First World War, alongside the records of the war such as letters and artefacts and judgements, this chapter considers what it means to translate these records of war and law in order for them to be integrated and heard. Through considering a range of art practices focused on legal and other records—including Minutes of Evidence, which reactivates historical archives of a quasi-judicial body to raise awareness about issues of justice in Australia, and Flowers of War, a contemporary artwork that draws from records of the First World War to elicit public engagement—it asks us to consider ways in which legal and other records may be ‘translated’ and engaged with. James Boyd White wrote that ‘Law should take as its most central question what kind of a community we should be, with what values, motives and aims; it is a process by which we make ourselves by making our language’ .1 We make our community through making law. Yet how to move from statement of intent to sustainable change? From individual or Chapter 14