The body and the law across borders during the COVID-19 pandemic

Miriam Tedeschi

doi:10.1177/2043820620934234

Abstract

Drawing on non-representational theories in geography and beyond, this commentary provides an autoethnographic account of the material and spatial dimensions of the law as well as its effects and affects on bodies in-between two countries, Italy and Finland, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Highlights

This commentary concerns the law and how it affects bodies crossing borders during the COVID-19 pandemic.1 Its argument is theoretically rooted in the tight ontological relationship between geography and the law and, between spaces and the law (Blomley, 1989; Braverman et al, 2014)
The co-constitution of space and law has been broadly explored by legal geographers and other scholars, and it has found a home in the philosophies of becoming, nonrepresentational geographies, and the ontological and new materialist turn in the socio-spatial sciences
Drawing inspiration from Bennett’s (2018) conception of the ‘affective geographies of matter’, and ontological and new materialist approaches to human geography more generally, this commentary provides an example of the intertwining of the law and space through an autoethnographic analysis of my own body’s experience of crossing borders, in Milan (Italy) and Turku (Finland), during the COVID-19 pandemic

Summary

Introduction

This commentary concerns the law and how it affects bodies crossing borders during the COVID-19 pandemic.1 Its argument is theoretically rooted in the tight ontological relationship between geography and the law and, between spaces and the law (Blomley, 1989; Braverman et al, 2014). A body is unaware of signs that the law affectively directs its movements in public spaces (through restrictions, limits, implicit rules on how to behave, surveillance, etc.), but in exceptional times, the law may become more visible and its embeddedness in spaces apparent to everyone.

Results

Conclusion