The Legal Sightseeing Festival is an informal interdisciplinary event that will speak to academics, legal professionals, artists, students, and members of the general public interested in international law, politics, and art. This festival celebrates a decade of Legal Sightseeing as a collaborative research platform, founded by Renske Vos (VU) and Sofia Stolk (VU). It presents the book ‘Legal Sightseeing and International Law’ and highlights the practice of legal sightseeing, including creative activities, guided ‘tours’, an exhibition, and a festive reception.  

This festival is an invitation to pause and wonder at the spectacular yet mundane practice that we have come to call legal sightseeing. Legal sightseeing signals the widespread ‘eventisation’ of international law: increasingly, international courthouses are becoming top tourist destinations that host public events, exhibitions, and tours. But international law also pops up in more everyday spaces: as the theme for an organised city run or as a symbol printed on a T-shirt or an image on a cookie jar. Legal sightseeing stands for this broad category of encounters between ‘international law’ and ‘the public’ that encompasses many different activities, sites, artefacts, and participants. Legal sightseeing asks how international law is presented to ‘the public’ in these encounters, and in turn wonders what that public shows up for.