Law Up Loud: Jurisprudence and Rock Music

Abstract

In order to better perceive and understand philosophies of the law, this thesis connects jurisprudence expounded by mainstream 20th century legal thinkers with the lives and music of rock stars of the 1960s and beyond. With their propensity for unconventional, anti-establishment, and sometimes lawless behaviour, rock stars may initially appear incompatible with legal thinking and its concerns, such as justice, rules and rulers, and considered decision making. However, opening a ‘channel’ between law and music, it is argued, performs dual functions. First, comparing the activities of theorists and rockers vividly displays the workings of jurisprudence. Second, the pairing of academic understandings of the law with popular culture reveals how ‘everyday people’ understand and discuss jurisprudential concepts and issues. Jurisprudential reading using popular culture creates the possibility of insights into theory that the theory may be unable to recognise in itself. Not only do rock stars perform jurisprudence, they problematise jurisprudence, exposing the issues, dilemmas, and paradoxes within jurisprudence’s central themes.