ABSTRACT
The gap between process and persuasion is marked, on one level, by the act of judgment, the concrete moment in which judgment is handed down in the courtroom. Even if the judge simply speaks, declares judgment, her speech is speech which is immediately embodied in action. In some ways, the act of producing a written judgment signifies that the case was out of the ordinary. The formal written judgment is no longer the norm, particularly at first instance. An appeal judge has further and weightier reasons for producing a written judgment, whether she, on the facts, upholds the judgment at first instance or overrules it. If the sign of law marks any act, in our culture, it is the handing down of judgment. At the moment of judgment all ambivalence and ambiguity must be repressed. Once judgment has been handed down, the giving of reasons attains even greater urgency.
