ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on contemporary Swedish conditions. It begins with a description of the courthouse building and the courtrooms; it proceeds to present and discuss a number of cases and different actors, including the parties, judges, lawyers and the audience. The chapter has only been possible to sketch some of the ways in which disagreement enacted in the courtroom, verbally and emotionally. The focus has not been on factual disputes or legal issues, but on the emotional tropes that are part of the language game taking place in the courtroom. The chapter discusses on a short discussion of the importance of the pause in the judicial proceedings, a discussion of the logical, emotional and affective aspects of the judicial space of the courtroom. In the present study of the courtroom Leif Dahlberg made several comparisons with theatre and film, and with fictional representations of judicial proceedings.
