Abstract
In legal discourse and practice, concerns regarding the appearance of text focus almost exclusively on questions of legibility. There is little analysis of law’s textual form beyond matters of practical readability, indicating an underlying assumption that printed words are merely a vehicle for the transmission of law’s intellectual content. However, the UK’s Road Vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) Regulations 2001 (SI No 561) (the ‘2001 Regulations’) prescribe the detailed regulation of the visual appearance of registration marks (or number plates) beyond that required for their practical operation. Through analysis of these regulations, this paper overturns the assumption that the significance of textual appearance is purely pragmatic by demonstrating the widespread importance of the visual form of writing within the regulatory praxis of the modern state—of which registration marks are a part. When we read the law, when we encounter a regulatory text, we are not just decoding intellectual content but are witnessing the appearance and repetition of sovereign power.
Highlights
Embedded in the typography of its transcript, there is a secret message encoded in the judgment of Baigent v Random House.1 The case involves a copyright claim against Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code2 and the cryptophilic novel inspired the trial judge Smith J to transmit a secret ‘smithy code’ of his own by strategically formatting bold and italic letters throughout his written decision.3 On appeal, these typographic shenanigans were given short shrift by the appellate judges, who mention the ‘smithy code’ just long enough to denounce its substantive relevance, a determination that rejects the significance of the visual formatting used to encode the message
The UK’s Road Vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) Regulations 2001 (SI No 561) prescribe the detailed regulation of the visual appearance of registration marks beyond that required for their practical operation
Through analysis of these regulations, this paper overturns the assumption that the significance of textual appearance is purely pragmatic by demonstrating the widespread importance of the visual form of writing within the regulatory praxis of the modern state—of which registration marks are a part
Summary
Registration marks connect vehicles to the state, enabling their regulation. In the UK, they are created under the statutory authority of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 (the ‘1994 Act’) initially as a means of administering vehicle taxation through the licensing of road vehicles, but are of much wider significance. While a linkage might exist, an unmarked car cannot be connected to its legal identity, and so becomes difficult to regulate properly It is the registration mark—as something physically and materially affixed to a vehicle and in full view— that enables its practical regulation in this context. The displayed mark is the mediating point between the general content of regulations and the specific regulated vehicle, enabling the content of legal norms to have practical effects In this sense, an unmarked car would fall outside the practical regulatory framework of the state, signifying something beyond the reach of the sovereign—the display of a registration mark keeps the object, its use and its owner, within the normative order
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