Courtroom proverbial murals in Lebanon: a semiotic reconstruction of justice

Abstract

Inspired by the “rituality” and “symbolism” of the courtroom as a discourse of space, this paper sheds light on the semiotic weight of the tiled-mosaic murals of Arabic proverbs displayed in the courtrooms of the Palace of Justice in Beirut, Lebanon. This paper attempts to draw attention to the discursive importance of these courtroom proverbial murals in the conceptualization of justice in the Lebanese legal and judicial system by unfolding the semiotic code of the proverbial murals. This work categorizes the murals under investigation (20 murals) into three “functional” or semiotic categories: social (six proverbs), quasi-judicial (nine proverbs; three of which are religious, two ethical, and four political) and judicial (five proverbs). On a positive note, this investigation highlights the functionality of the linguistic (i.e. proverbiality) and artistic (calligraphy and design) components of the proverbial murals as a semiotic tool to inter-faith national unity in Lebanon. Nonetheless, the same semiotic features signal a spatially “mutating” justice, from one courtroom to another and thus a socioethical, religious and political relativism in perceiving justice.