Sonic lawfare: on the jurisprudence of weaponised sound

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article suggests that the growing literature on sonic warfare has not been as sensitive to the work of law and legal institutions as it might be, and that it is exemplary in this respect of a lot of work in sound studies more generally. Just as jurisprudence must learn to think sonically, sound studies must endeavour to listen jurisprudentially. Across a series of examples – some well-known, others less so – the article draws out some key elements of the jurisprudence of weaponised sound. It shows how law is necessarily implicated in the story of sonic warfare, and not just insofar as it is prohibitive or emancipatory. Law doesn’t simply oppose violence; it authorises and channels it, and increasingly towards the acoustic. In this respect, it is doing more than just expressing or clearing a path for the expression of other forms of power. Law itself is a form of power that, by means of complex institutional architectures across multiple jurisdictions, crucially shapes our sonic worlds.