Judicial ethics, everyday work, and emotion management

Judicial ethics and conduct guides emphasize dignity, decorum, patience, and courtesy, contributing to an understanding of judging as rational, detached, and unemotional. However, these are also interactional capacities, implying the presence of emotion and emotion work. Empirical research finds that judicial officers express considerable awareness of the need for judicial emotional capacities and emotion work and undertake a range of strategies to manage emotion. This judicial experience shows that available guidance does not adequately address emotion in judicial officers’ everyday work. Improved guidance will explicitly recognize judicial work as an interactional space, generating emotion and demanding emotion work.