ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role played by the judge in constructing the decision about a case. It analyses the narrative structure of a judicial decision and discusses the relationship between the judge’s narration and that of the attorney, as well as the role played by evidence in constructing the facts. The chapter focuses on the judge’s discretionary powers. In a hermeneutic-constructivist perspective that considers the legal process as an interpretative community, the judge’s decision is presented as the result of a complex activity that involves interpretative and narrative dimensions. According to J. Gaakeer, since judges are human beings, they are also “narrative beings”, who are equipped with a narrative intelligence as well as an aptitude for deliberating and adjudicating. The judge’s function thus plays a more extensive role that combines law and culture and that in the sense can be defined as creative and aimed at achieving cultural juridification.
