Just Improvisation : Enriching Law through Musical Techniques, Discourses, and Pedagogies
- Submitting institution
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Queen's University of Belfast
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 168178811
- Type
- B - Edited book
- DOI
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- Publisher
- University of Guelph
- ISBN
- 0000000000
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- April
- Year of publication
- 2018
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- Yes
- Number of additional authors
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1
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This 2017 Special Issue is one of the primary outputs from the AHRC-funded project Into the Key of Law: Transposing Musical Improvisation. The Case of Child Protection in Northern Ireland. The project was a collaboration between critical legal scholar Sara Ramshaw and music researcher Paul Stapleton, and built on their previous collaborative research in the area of Critical Studies in Improvisation, including the work of the Translating Improvisation research group which they co-founded at Queen's University Belfast in 2013.
Ramshaw and Stapleton's work aims to develop a process of cultural translating between the practices of music and law, positioning improvisation as a key feature of both disciplines. Improvised music is not entirely spontaneous as it builds on instrumental skill, group coordination, awareness of social context and the ability to listen closely to the unique demands of a given situation. Likewise, Law is not entirely built on precedence as justice requires attention to the singular nature of a given case without predetermining the results of a trial in advance.
In this particular project, Ramshaw and Stapleton sought to practically investigate the key characteristics of good improvisation in law with the aim of generating better (that is, faster, less formalised and more reflective and adaptive) legal decision-making in the child protection law sector. The project brought together internationally established improvising musicians and local legal professionals (judges, barristers, social workers) in Northern Ireland through workshops, concerts, seminars and a two-day symposium in 2015.
This Special Issue collection was co-edited by Ramshaw and Stapleton, who each also contributed as co-authors to an editorial introduction and multiple articles. This collection also contains peer-reviewed articles and opinion pieces from participants at the 2015 symposium, as well as an interview with Her Honour Judge Patricia Smyth who played an active role in the project.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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