[Author] Lee Cabatingan
[Keywords] Popular Courts, Fashion, Legal Subject, Cuba, Anglophone Caribbean
[Abstract] Clothing, as has been shown in a growing body of anthropological research, not only reflects reality but also works to make it. This article uses the unique lens provided by fashion to focus on the populace in which popular courts stake their legitimacy. Much in the way that laws, processes, and procedures affect people’ s relationship to law, courthouse attire, too, subtly and perhaps more cunningly contributes to the creation of subjects that interact with and understand the law in specific ways. Specifically, the clothing worn in and required by a popular courthouse helps to make the very community in which that court claims its popularity. Ethnographic examples from fieldwork in a municipal tribunal in Cuba and in the Caribbean Court of Justice in Trinidad and Tobago show how fashion reflects the historical development of each court while it simultaneously works to transform populations into ideal legal subjects.