X&Y vs. France: The Case of a Legal Precedent

The fruit of years of conversation, this unusual collaboration between artists Patrick Bernier and Olive Martin and lawyers Sylvia Preuss-Laussinotte and Sébastien Canevet proposes to reimagine the regulations that monitor human migration across European borders.

Presented for the first time in the Netherlands, the performance simulates an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights that seeks to overturn deportation orders issued against a fictional client on the basis that the defendant is the co-author and executer of an intangible work in progress, and is hereby under the protection of the provisions of intellectual property law. By interjecting the means of intellectual property law into immigration law, the performance proposes new perspectives—such as choosing to view an illegal resident as an author instead—with which to judge contemporary legal cases.

Organized in collaboration with the Erasmus School of Law, the Center for Art, Law and Innovation at Erasmus University and the Students Law Association. The program is supported by Institut Français and Sjöcrona Van Stigt.

Witte de With would like to thank Jeanne Gaakeer (Professor of Legal Theory, School of Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam, and justice in the Appellate Court of The Hague), Helen Stout and Farshida Zafar (Center for Art, Law and Innovation), Jeanne Beck (Students Law Association) and the Erasmus Trustfonds.

How to get to Erasmus University?
From Centraal Station: Metro line D to Beurs, then metro lines A, B, C to Kralingse Zoom (10 minutes)
From Beurs or Blaak: Metro lines A, B, C to Kralingse Zoom (10 minutes)
C building is a 5 minutes walk from the metro stop. Entrance is on the South side of the building.
See map here