Australasian Animal Studies Association

THE LAW IS A WHITE DOG: How Legal Rituals Make and Unmake Persons

Colin Dayan. Princeton University Press, 2013.
Abused dogs, prisoners tortured in Guantánamo and supermax facilities, or slaves killed by the state–all are deprived of personhood through legal acts. Such deprivations have recurred throughout history, and the law sustains these terrors and banishments even as it upholds the civil order.