Legal Creatures

The Architecture of the Law

A production by cartographer Carlijn Kingma, Associate Professor of Law and Finance at University of Oxford Thom Wetzer and investigative financial journalist Thomas Bollen

The invisible architecture that shapes our world

Law shapes our society. Legal structures determine what is allowed and what’s not, who bears responsibility when things go wrong, and who has access to wealth and power. In school we learn that the law works for all of us. It is society’s great equalizer – a neutral system that ensures fair treatment for all. The law, we’re told, is blind to wealth and status; it guarantees your rights, secures your safety, and upholds justice regardless of who you are. This promise is at the heart of democratic society: together we make the rules that apply to everyone. But does it really work that way in the real world?

In recent years we see mounting threats to the rule of law all around the world: from the rise of autocratic leaders, to systematic attacks on judicial independence, to the selective enforcement of laws based on political loyalty rather than justice. While public outrage focuses on these dramatic assaults on our legal institutions, another, quieter but equally profound erosion is taking place. Our legal systems are being captured by private interests, who use technical complexity and jurisdictional cherry picking to place themselves beyond democratic accountability. 

From public good to private power

Corporate law was originally designed as a useful tool to pool resources for transformative public projects, like the railways of the 19th century and the electrification networks of the early 20th century. However, the same legal mechanisms that once built essential infrastructure are now increasingly being used to create corporate entities that accumulate unlimited wealth, avoid taxes, and evade social responsibility. Those who can afford the best lawyers use the law to create ‘legal creatures’ with super powers that no person of flesh and blood possesses. 

This transformation accelerated in recent decades. Lehman Brothers’ 2008 collapse revealed a corporate structure so complex – with over 200 subsidiaries across dozens of jurisdictions – that regulators couldn’t comprehend how it operated. Rather than preventing such structures, they became the global standard for large corporations. During COVID-19, pharmaceutical companies used patent law to block universal vaccine access, despite receiving public research funding. Fossil fuel companies employ similar strategies, using patents to restrict clean technology while exploiting legal arbitrage to challenge environmental regulations and evade climate accountability.

The result: wealthy interests capture regulatory agencies, fund political campaigns through untraceable channels, and literally rewrite the laws meant to govern them. Our democratic society faces a critical challenge: the very legal foundations that should serve everyone have become tools that primarily benefit the privileged few. From the climate crisis, to the cost of living crises, to the rise of autocratic leadership – the rule of law lies both at its foundation and could provide a solution. 

Why we need to act

Yet for most of us this legal world remains as mysterious as it is influential. When citizens cannot understand how legal power actually operates – when the architecture of law remains invisible to those it governs – they cannot effectively defend democratic institutions against authoritarian attack or corporate capture.

Legal Creatures: The Architecture of the Law aims to make our legal architecture visible and comprehensible through cartographic representation, journalism and academic publications. We will map how the law creates privilege, perpetuates inequality, and enables both remarkable innovations and devastating abuses – and we will research how to restore the public good. This is a democratic necessity for societies that wish to preserve the rule of law for everyone.