Introduction

Abstract

The introduction argues that legal technicalities are at the heart of the trial. It argues that legal technicalities are forms of tekhne—knowledge practices that are akin to craftmanship or artistry, that is, knowledge that emerges by doing. It argues, that by looking at how terror-accused work with legal technicalities, we can see how technicalities provide avenues of participation in the trial process. In doing so, we can attend to human voice and vulnerability that emerges through the law. In focusing on technicalities, this chapter departs from (1) linking law exclusively with epistemic and physical violence; (2) framings of law as being extensions of society and politics; and (3) framing ant-terror laws through the ideas of the ‘state of exception’ and ‘bare life’. In doing so, this chapter argues that legal technicalities engender forms of life.