ABSTRACT
Musical metaphors enjoy a peculiar place in the stylistic repertoire of academic legal writing. Even though papers and books in this domain refer sometimes to musical concepts, conservative ones are more likely to be cited: melody (Postema 2004), harmony (Krotoszynski 2006), ouvertures (Zumbansen 2004: 1499), or counterpoints (Maduro 2003). Consequently, the image of music that can be reconstructed from these citations evokes a stereotypical vision of just one genre-classical music. Other musical styles, particularly jazz or modern musical experimentalism (with their different takes on the idea of improvisation), do not speak much to lawyers’ imagination, not to mention such plebeian genres as rock or pop.
