Trial Trial

In 19th century England, as deaths caused by industrial machinery increased, some coroners revived a medieval legal principle called the deodand. Under this rule, an object that caused a person’s death could be seized and forfeited, effectively holding its owner financially accountable. The law was abolished in 1846 following pressure from employers, lawyers and judges, as railway accidents became more common due to rapid industrialisation.

Trial Trial is a live, role-played court hearing (LARP) devised by n-Space fellows, dmstfctn, Ed Fornieles, Agnes Cameron, Hannah Cobb, and Leela Jadhav, that imagines this law still exists today. In this simulated trial, a contemporary dual-use technology — one used in both civilian and military contexts— is put on trial as if it were legally responsible for harm. Focusing on the UK as a state that governs extensively through procurement and contracting, this event brings back into moral contestation the use of military technology framed as common-sense pragmatism through contracts and tenders. By placing a technical system on trial, the n-Space fellows trace its various logics and components to examine how a particular configuration of governance comes to appear unavoidable. The event provides a propositional opportunity to explore whether existing British legal frameworks could be used to challenge complex technological systems today.