ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the distinctive role of judges, their core obligation of impartiality, and the conventional model of judicial authority which rejects emotion and requires judicial officers to display an emotionless demeanour. The conventional model of the impartial judge casts judging as without emotion, emphasising reason over feeling and legal rules over emotion. Several key insights follow from conceptualising emotion as culturally and historically embedded rather than primarily biologically or naturally given. The chapter addresses the growing scholarship on emotion and the approaches of different disciplines including history, psychology and sociology. It investigates emotion work and feeling rules in occupations and professions and addresses the judiciary as a distinctive profession. Understanding emotion as a social practice recognises that emotive performance is oriented toward others in the social setting and implies an audience, even multiple audiences. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
