Law and Music

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The theme of the interaction between music and the law is increasingly attracting the attention of scholars inside and outside legal academia. This growing interest emerges from a number of studies published in the last years and from a series of papers presented in previous editions of the SLSA Conference, focusing both on the regulation of the music industry and on music as a methodological and epistemological tool for socio-legal analysis. In this context, various sub-areas emerge:

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• ‘law of music’, which concentrates on legal provisions regarding the creation, use and diffusion of music, including, but not limited to, the rules on the fruition of music through the internet, on the governance of musical institutions, on the employment contracts of artistic and technical staff, or on fundraising for live concerts;

• ‘law as music’, which employs musical metaphors in order to explore overlooked structural characteristics of the law as a discourse and social dynamic, and to shed light on its non-verbal, aesthetic, emotional, instinctive, and performative dimension;

• ‘law in music’, which looks at the use of methods, concepts, cases or institutions typically pertaining to the world of the law in operas, musicals and instrumental pieces (e.g. ‘legal tricks’ in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas) or in the composition process.

 

Papers are welcome which look at these or other possible aspects of law and music. The theme is suitable for various forms of presentations including, but not limited to, individual oral reports, collective thematic panels and short concert-lectures (presentations with live performance of brief musical excerpts). Other innovative forms of presentation can also be taken into account upon agreement with the convener and the organizing committee of the conference. 

 

Convenor

Kevin De Sabbata (kevin.desabbata@gmail.com)