Introduction

Hearing is an intricate modality of sensory perception which is unceasingly involved in, and perceptive of, its environment. A delicate perception that similarly to sound – as its stimulus modality – informs the spatiotemporal dimension in which it takes place. It is a sense that mediates and connects, always situated but fundamentally overarching and extended into the open. Beyond its capacity for sensory perception, this chapter approaches hearing as an intrinsic quality to law’s functioning. In that sense, while it introduces hearing as a sense-making activity that adjudicates and informs the spatiotemporal acoustics of justice, it also questions and challenges law’s phenomenological and anthropocentric dimensions of hearing. The chapter concludes with outlining the contributions in this series and their engaging approaches to this end.