Book Review: Automobiles, Cultures and the Question of Law

Unsettling Colonial Automobilities: Criminalisation and Contested Sovereignties is a compelling interdisciplinary and multileveled study that sits at the intersection of law, criminology, settler colonial studies, and cultural analysis. The authors are well-suited to this task. They include Professors Harry Blagg, with expertise in First Nations community-engaged criminology; Thalia Anthony, from legal and carceral studies; Wiradjuri scholar Juanita Sherwood, who studies Indigenous health and community research; and Kieran Tranter, an expert in cultural legal theory. Together, they offer a layered interrogation of how the motor vehicle and automobility shape the settler colonial ordering of Australia.

This review is comprised of three parts. Part I introduces the main concepts – carceralism and necroautomobility. Part II then examines how these concepts structure the book, which provides a summary of the book. Part III provides a discussion and analysis, highlighting the book’s novel contributions, the questions that arise, and areas for further research.