ABSTRACT
This chapter explores what we call the ‘style’ of the judges we observed, meaning their observable manner, including their apparent emotionality, their transparency and tactics, the nature of their interactions, their reactions to events in the hearing as it proceeds, and the extent of their attempts to direct proceedings. We rely on judicial demeanour, including the speech, voice, body language and facial expressions of judges, to help us detect different styles. On this basis we outline four ‘types’ of stylistic approach to conducting hearings, which we characterise as ‘inside-out’, ‘schoolmaster- and schoolmistress-like’, ‘detached’ and ‘simmering’, each entailing different combinations of emotionality and orchestration. Taken together, they illustrate the variability of judicial approaches to asylum appeals.
