James v Birnmann depicts a never ending legal drama, situated in a future where law is controlled by AI. The continual trial acts as a sinister mixture of entertainment and social pacifier, for a legal system increasingly detached from human control or values. As purely symbolic vestiture, the performance is separate from the functioning of the legal system. Following in a common law tradition, the trial is based on precedent of past ‘real’ trials and ‘fictional’ legal dramas - it is an amalgamation of our perception of law.