In On Trials: a manual for the theatre of law, Jasmina Metwaly and Philip Rizk explore the performativity of the law within Egypt’s spectral legal reality. The publication dissects material collected for their film On Trials, a work-in-progress that uses modes of documentary and fiction making. In it, they reflect on sites where legal proceedings take place. And listen to all manner of actors from within the realm of the law including, lawyers, a TV camera operator who frequents courtrooms, a former inmate, on whose body the legal specter has left unutterable marks, and tailors who specialize in uniforms.