ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the strategies judicial officers adopt to assess, respond to and manage the emotion of other participants, especially in the courtroom. The complex nature of judicial emotion work is displayed vividly in the following description of an emotionally dense situation in court. Judicial officers anticipate that unrepresented litigants will feel distress, confusion or anxiety, perhaps resulting from frustration or anger at the court and the legal system. Unrepresented participants and certain kinds of decisions are regarded as likely to require judicial management of others’ emotions. Judicial officers use their own emotions—both felt and displayed—as resources to manage the emotions of others and to contribute to the emotional climate and maintain the emotion regime in the courtroom. Many of the interviewees describe situations in which they would allow expression of emotion, even when such display might appear to violate courtroom feeling rules and norms of decorum and respect.
