Final Call For Panelists, AALS Section on Law and Humanities, 2014 AALS Annual Meeting

From Bennett Capers, Chair, AALS & Humanities Section

Call for Panelists
AALS Section on Law and Humanities
“Law and Music”
2014 AALS Annual Meeting
January 3-6, 2014, New York, NY
Submission Deadline: Friday, March 29

There is a rich tradition of legal scholars exploring uncommon connections between music and the law.  Richard Posner, for example, has argued that understanding the authentic music movement (the insistence that period music be played with period instruments) can help us better understand, and critique, constitutional originalism.  Other scholars have noted the connection between jazz and the law, argued that music can be used to reduce crime, and explored the jurisprudence of Bob Dylan.  And of course, Paul Butler has argued that punishment theorists can learn much from hip-hop.

What are we to make of these and other uncommon connections between the law and music?  What role does the digitalization of music play in how we think about law and music?  Are there connections to be made between law and music in our legal scholarship and in our law teaching as well?  If being attentive to law and literature can make us better lawyers and scholars, what does being attentive to law and music do? And, last but certainly not least, what’s on your playlist?  This program will explore these issues with several invited panelists and panelists who are accepted through this call.

To be considered as a panelist, please submit a statement of interest by Friday, March 29, 2013, including a description (2-3 paragraphs are sufficient) of your presentation that will address one or more of the themes highlighted in the above description, and the methodology through which you will advance such themes. Please also submit an updated curriculum vitae.

Submit all materials to Professor Tamara Lawson, St. Thomas University School of Law, via electronic mail at tlawson@stu.edu

Panelists will be selected by April 15, 2013. The Section hopes to have these papers published as part of an online mini-symposium sponsored by a law review, either in print or online.  All panelists will be responsible for paying their annual meeting registration fee and travel expenses.

Full-time faculty members of AALS member law schools are eligible to submit papers. Foreign, visiting (and not full-time on a different faculty) and adjunct faculty members, graduate students, and fellows are not eligible to submit.

Prof. Bennett Capers
Chair, AALS Law & Humanities Section
Brooklyn Law School
250 Joralemon Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201