ABSTRACT
Judicial officers sometimes anticipate emotion, and they experience emotion arising from specific situations or from the general events of the day. Judging and Emotion adopts an expansive and composite conception of emotion, recognising emotion as an outcome of social interactions, embedded in interpersonal and interprofessional relations, rather than as a primarily individual or personal phenomenon. Judges’ and magistrates’ reflections on their emotion experiences and emotion work all suggest conscious effort to comply with the norms regulating felt and displayed emotion. Emotion management involves self-talk, demeanour, humour, engaging other resources and recognising a place for empathy. Some sharing of emotion may reassure litigants their concerns have been heard and enhance their appreciation of legal requirements, thus minimising emotional outbursts that would breach courtroom feeling rules. While there is an extensive literature on gender and judging generally, there is little empirical consideration of gender, judging, emotion and emotion work.
