{"id":4503,"date":"2015-03-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-11T07:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.voelkerrechtsblog.org\/articles\/may-it-please-the-court-a-danced-pleading\/"},"modified":"2020-12-09T13:54:34","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T12:54:34","slug":"may-it-please-the-court-a-danced-pleading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/may-it-please-the-court-a-danced-pleading\/","title":{"rendered":"May it please the Court \u2013 A danced pleading"},"content":{"rendered":"

A response to the posts by Miriam Aziz\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/span>and Mareike Riede<\/a>l<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/i> <\/i><\/p>\n

In her latest piece, Miriam Aziz elaborates on the similarities between (international) law and dance, drawing attention to the \u201cperfect line\u201d. After all, every single human discipline is an endless strive for perfection: we see it dominantly in sports, but it can also be seen in the arts. So why should there be no space for this kind of perfection and its counterpart \u2013 creativity \u2013 in law? <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mareike Riedel focuses in her response to Miriam on the comparison of law and poetry. She correctly points out that \u201claw is an attempt to make sense of the world and of human experience through language.\u201d It has, however, to face the problem of \u201carbitrariness of language\u201d and the \u201csubjectivity of interpretation and perception\u201d. In this assignment, I would like to deepen Miriam\u2019s approach by highlighting the systemic connection between dance and legal presentation from a practical perspective and present dance \u2013 more than literature \u2013 as an unique means of \u201ctranslating\u201d argumentation on a meta-level beyond the inadequacy of language.<\/span><\/span> <\/i><\/p>\n

As a Moot Court Coach it is my foremost task to impart the \u201cart\u201d of conducting a convincing pleading to my students. Tension, stage fright and mechanical recitals of the memorials are typical companions which need to be intercepted. This goal can \u2013 to my understanding \u2013 best be reached if the students internalise their pleading, i.e. adopting it as their very own personal piece, drawing on the empathy they feel for the case. Just as \u201cthe \u2018perfect line\u2019 in ballet refers to the lines of perfect alignment and placement of the body\u201d it refers in a pleading to a self-assured appearance, experienced interaction with the Court and quick-witted reactions to objections, becoming thus a \u201cperfect line\u201d of convincing legal presentation. <\/span><\/p>\n

Court trials \u2013 especially in common law countries with their strong formalities \u2013 correspond in many aspects to theatrical performances. When you are before the Court you are on stage presenting your personal piece \u2013 your pleading. As both law and arts, especially dance, aim at bringing order to chaos, it is useful to clarify about the key elements of performing arts: staging of an impalpable artwork. As soon as it builds up it is already vanishing, leaving nothing but a delicate impression on the audience\u2019s mind. Contrary to visual arts, the artist does not create a material work as a legacy to later viewers. <\/span><\/span>Their only means is the mastery of a fragile moment or, as Schiller put it in his play Wallenstein<\/span>: <\/span><\/span>\u201cDem Mimen flicht die Nachwelt keine Kr\u00e4nze, drum muss er [\u2026] den Augenblick, der sein ist, ganz erf\u00fcllen [\u2026].\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The bench is your audience, the applicant respectively the respondent your counterpart. You are standing in the spotlight, you are the principal performer. The curtain rises, all eyes are set on you. \u201cMay it please the Court\u201d and your performance begins. Just as the artist uses every single inch of their body, contracting the most external muscle fibres, a counsel needs to be aware of the proper use of his\/her main tools before the Court: voice and body-language. Therefore, it was a great pleasure to attend Miriam\u2019s workshop \u201cLaw and Dance\u201d with the Moot Court Team and to gain a firsthand experience of her approach. She raised our awareness regarding the above mentioned points and gave us techniques for preparing both body and mind for a (legal) presentation enabling them to deliver a full performance at point. In order to make the podium your stage, you need to use them calculatedly and be aware of their importance. Commonly, counsels focus \u2013 even though with good reason \u2013 on convincing legal arguments; simultaneously, however, neglecting their means of imparting it. Like stage artists need to warm up their muscles and their voice, the same applies to counsels. <\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, you can read about this in every guide on how to give a presentation. What is spelled out, however, and new in Miriam\u2019s approach is the unique connection to ballet: \u201cNothing is more revealing than movement\u201d or as Nietzsche wrote in his masterpiece Also sprach Zarathustra: <\/span><\/span>\u201cNur im Tanze wei\u00df ich der h\u00f6chsten Dinge Gleichnis zu reden.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span> Just as the \u201cimplementation of international legal norms\u201d is the presentation of legal reasoning \u201can act of interpretation which is inherently creative.\u201d Through dance, you let your feelings and thoughts flow, behaving both vulnerable and strong in the very same moment, thereby creating an atmosphere of persuasion. The aim of Miriam\u2019s approach is to transmit this feeling of self-assured appearance and manner to legal presentation. Both Miriam and Mareike search in their contributions for structural commonalities (Miriam) respectively a shared grammar (Mareike) between the different legal cultures or even of human language. The bottom line is that we are facing (again) the Faustian pursuit <\/span><\/span>\u201cDa\u00df ich erkenne, was die Welt im Innersten zusammenh\u00e4lt\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span> <\/i>and aching to overcome the biblical confusion of tongues (<\/span><\/span>\u201cGo to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another\u2019s speech\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span>; Genesis 11, 7). This is especially important regarding pleadings before international courts as the confusion of languages and legal cultures is inherent to them. That is the reason why the ICJ Statute states in Art. 3(1) that \u201c[t]he Court shall consist of fifteen members, no two of whom may be nationals of the same state\u201d and in Art. 9 that \u201cin the body as a whole the representation of the main forms of civilization and of the principal legal systems of the world should be assured.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a> And indeed, there are surprisingly many similarities between dance and legal presentation: Most notably, you have to fill out the <\/span><\/span>\u201ctemps\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span> and <\/span><\/span>\u201csc\u00e8ne\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span> given to you and thereby keep the <\/span><\/span>\u201cbalance\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span> between storytelling and legal reasoning. The walk to the podium is your <\/span><\/span>\u201centr\u00e9e\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span>, your position <\/span><\/span>\u201cen face\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span> to the bench. The actual pleading is your <\/span><\/span>\u201crepr\u00e9sentation\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span>, a smooth “glissade<\/a><\/em>“ <\/i><\/span><\/span><\/i>connecting the arguments. You can lead from argument to argument using either \u201ctemps li\u00e9s<\/a>\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i> or “grand jet\u00e9s<\/a><\/em>“<\/span><\/span> if you need to take bigger steps. You can present strong arguments as a “grand battement jet\u00e9<\/em><\/a>“<\/span><\/span><\/i>, stay with them “en tournant<\/em><\/a>” <\/span><\/span>or even highlight it using a “tour en l’air<\/a><\/em>“<\/span><\/span>. If you notice that your argument does not have the desired impact, you need to improvise \u2013 spontaneously creating movement: “Battement d\u00e9velopp\u00e9<\/a><\/em>“<\/span><\/span><\/i>, or another variation, e.g. “fondu, frapp\u00e9, or tendu<\/em><\/a>“<\/span><\/span> \u2013 there are a variety of possibilities. If you still need to change your approach, you can just move from one foot to the other \u2013 <\/span><\/span>\u201cjet\u00e9 saut\u00e9\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span> \u2013 and start again. The final \u201cthank you\u201d is your “reverence<\/em><\/a>“<\/span><\/span> <\/i>and concludes your presentation. The advantage of ballet is the transfer of thoughts through a language common to every human being: emotion. \u201cIt is translation that reveals the kinship, the relatedness of all languages. All languages mean and refer to the same things and concepts\u201d, cites Mareike Walter Benjamin. I suggest that dance \u2013 in a theoretical understanding \u2013 could serve as lingua franca of human expression.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, this does not mean you should literally dance before the Court. As your possibilities of moving before the Court are highly limited, you need to transfer this movement to your voice and style of presentation, staging a dance in your audiences mind. You should feel like a dancer when pleading, being aware of the fact that you are in control of your pleading to such a degree that you could actually dance it. Radiate this consciousness and the Court will be pleased. <\/span><\/p>\n

Raphael Sch\u00e4fer<\/a> is working as a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law.<\/em><\/p>\n

Cite as: Raphael Sch\u00e4fer, \u201cMay it please the Court \u2013 A danced pleading\u201d,\u00a0V\u00f6lkerrechtsblog<\/em>, 11 March 2015, doi: 10.17176\/20170403-212639.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A response to the posts by Miriam Aziz\u00a0and Mareike Riedel In her latest piece, Miriam Aziz elaborates on the similarities between (international) law and dance, drawing attention to the \u201cperfect line\u201d. After all, every single human discipline is an endless strive for perfection: we see it dominantly in sports, but it can also be seen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6639],"tags":[],"authors":[3827],"article-categories":[6000],"doi":[3828],"class_list":["post-4503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","authors-raphael-schafer","article-categories-article","doi-10-17176-20170403-212639"],"acf":{"subline":""},"meta_box":{"doi":"10.17176\/20170403-212639"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4503"},{"taxonomy":"authors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/authors?post=4503"},{"taxonomy":"article-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-categories?post=4503"},{"taxonomy":"doi","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doi?post=4503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}