Law and justice in song: Murder ballads and popular music

Newman, Daniel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3735-1026 2026. Law and justice in song: Murder ballads and popular music. Transforming Legal Histories, London: Routledge. 10.4324/9781003589631

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Abstract

This book examines the murder ballad form, songs about death and killing, from a legal history perspective. It is held that taking on the long history of the murder ballad is a way that we can understand how death and killing in song has a function in dealing with the world around us. The book integrates law and humanities scholarship with diverse musical case studies to construct a typology of murder ballads and thus conceptualise the central messages of how murder ballads have treated death and killing. Drawing on a cultural form in which assessment and consideration of death and killing are so vigorously and richly enacted gives lawyers a guide to how those who do not see these matters through a primarily legal lens might understand this part of their world. The study will be of interest to academics and researchers working in the areas of Criminal Law, Legal History, Socio-Legal Studies, Criminology, and Musicology.

Item Type:	Book - authored
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Schools > Cardiff Law & Politics
Publisher:	Routledge
ISBN:	9781032964836
Last Modified:	24 Mar 2026 15:15
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/186001

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