Jamming the Law: Improvised Theatre and the 'Spontaneity' of Judgment
Date
2010
Authors
Ramshaw, Sara
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Law Text Culture
Abstract
Modern ‘nonscripted’ theatre (NST) clearly owes much to improvisation. Perhaps less obviously, and more surprisingly, so too does modern law. In this article I will contend that, despite all the rules of evidence and procedure, statutes and legal precedents that fundamentally govern the decisions and actions of a judge, it is only through ‘spontaneity’ that judgment can take place. This claim may appear strange to those well-versed in the common law tradition which proceeds on the basis of past legal decisions, or reason where no precedent exists. NST, on the other hand, is assumed to rely heavily on the unprecedented and unreasoned. Therefore, when the public watches a NST production, it places its faith in the belief that what is being observed is entirely new and is being produced ‘on the spur of the moment’.
Description
Keywords
Citation
Sara Ramshaw, "Jamming the Law: Improvised Theatre and the 'Spontaneity' of Judgment" (2010) 14:1 L Text Culture 133