Replaying the Past
Roles for Emotion in Judicial Invocations of Legislative History, and Precedent
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1105Keywords:
Emotions, Law and Emotions, Judging, Legal Reasoning, Constitutional RightsAbstract
Legal reasoning in the common law tradition requires judges to draw on concepts, and examples that are meant to resonate with a particular emotional import and operate in judicial reasoning as though they do. Judicial applications of constitutional rights are regularly interpreted by reference to past violations (either through precedent, contextual framings, and/or legislative history), which in turn elicit a series of emotions which work to deepen and intensify judicial understandings of a right guarantee (freedom of association, freedom of expression, equality, security of the person, etc.). This paper examines the way in which invocations of past political histories, and rights abuses (however ill or well-defined), work to conjure up a set of service emotions (emotions which work to establish a particular frame of mind), which guide judicial applications of doctrine in cases concerning an alleged violation of a constitutional right.
Downloads
Metrics
Downloads:
PDF 246
References
Abrams, K.K., and Keren, H., 2010. Who’s afraid of law and the emotions? Minnesota Law Review [online], 94. Available from: https://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/facpubs/1932/ [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Aristotle, 1984. Nicomachean ethics. In: J. Barnes, ed., The Complete Works of Aristotle. Princeton University Press.
Bandes, S.A., 1996. Empathy, narrative, and victim impact statements. The University of Chicago Law Review [online], 63(2), 361. Available from: https://doi.org/10.2307/1600234 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Bandes, S.A., ed., 1999. The Passions of Law. New York / London: New York University Press.
Bandes, S.A., 2016. Remorse and criminal justice. Emotion Review [online], 8(1). Available from: https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073915601222 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Barak, A., 2015. Human Dignity: The Constitutional Value and the Constitutional Right [online]. Cambridge University Press. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316106327 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Bedford, E., 1956. Emotions. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society [online], 57(1), 281-304. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1093/aristotelian/57.1.281 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Bergman Blix, S., and Wettergren, Å., 2018. Professional Emotions in Court: A Sociological Perspective. London: Routledge.
Blum, L., 2017. Stereotyping vs. “Black lives matter”: Moral frames for understanding the police killings. In: A. Amaya and M. Del Mar, eds., Virtue, Emotion and Imagination in Legal Reasoning. Oxford: Hart.
Brady, M., 2013. Emotional Insight: The Epistemic Role of Emotional Experience [online]. New York: Oxford University Press. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199685523.001.0001 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Cole, H., 2016. My John Berryman: A Poet of Deep Unease. The New Yorker [online], 6 April. Available from: https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/my-john-berryman-a-poet-of-deep-unease# [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Daly, E., 2012. Dignity Rights: Courts, Constitutions, and the Worth of the Human Person. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Davis, P.C., 2009. Responsive constitutionalism and the idea of dignity. University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law [online], 11(5). Available from: http://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1178&context=jcl [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Davis, P.C., 2016. Little citizens and their families. Fordham Urban Law Journal [online], 43(4), 2-12. Available from: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ulj/vol43/iss4/3 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
de Sousa, R., 1987. The Rationality of Emotion. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Available from: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/5760.001.0001 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
de Sousa, R., 2011. Emotional Truth. Oxford University Press.
Deigh, J., 2008. Emotions, Values, and the Law. Oxford University Press.
Del Mar, M., 2013, Exemplarity and Narrativity in the Common Law Tradition. Law and Literature [online], 25(3). Available from: https://doi.org/10.1525/lal.2013.25.3.390 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Del Mar, M., 2018. Common virtue and the perspectival imagination: Adam Smith and common law reasoning. Jurisprudence [online], 9(1), 58-70. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1080/20403313.2017.1352318 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Dworkin, R., 1972. A Special Supplement: The Jurisprudence of Richard Nixon. The New York Review of Books [online], 4 May. Available from: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1972/05/04/a-special-supplement-the-jurisprudence-of-richard-/ [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Dworkin, R., 1977. Taking Rights Seriously. London: Duckworth.
Elgin, C., 2007. Understanding the facts. Philosophical Studies [online], 132(1), 33-42. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-006-9054-z [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Gardner, J., 2008. The logic of excuses and the rationality of emotions. Oxford Legal Studies Research Paper [online], 35/2008. Available from: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1261764 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Gardner, J., 2016. Reasonable reactions to the wrongness of rape. Oxford Legal Studies Research Paper [online], 7/2016. Available from: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2727709 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Goldie, P., 2009. Narrative thinking, emotion, and planning. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism [online], 67(1). Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6245.2008.01338.x [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Gross, J., ed., 2014. Handbook of Emotion Regulation. London: The Guildford Press.
Habermas, J., 2010. The concept of human dignity and the realistic utopia of human rights. Metaphilosophy [online], 41(4), 464-480. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9973.2010.01648.x [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Haidt, J., 2003. The Moral Emotions. In: R.J. Davidson, K.R. Scherer and H.H. Goldsmith, eds., Handbook of Affective Sciences. Oxford University Press, 852-870.
Hochschild, A.R., 1983. The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Jackson, M., 2016. Ferguson (A Poem). Boston Review [online], 2 March. Available from: http://bostonreview.net/poetry/major-jackson-ferguson [Accessed 6 November 2019].
King, M.L., 2007. Letter from Birmingham Jail. New York: Limited Editions Club.
Kirchin, S., ed., 2013. Thick Concepts [online]. Oxford University Press. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199672349.001.0001 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Leighton, S.R., 1985. A new view of emotion. American Philosophical Quarterly [online], 22(2). Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20014089 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Leighton, S.R., ed., 2003. Philosophy and the Emotions: A Reader. Peterborough, ON / Orchard Park, NY: Broadview Press.
MacCormick, N., 1978. Legal Reasoning and Legal Theory. Oxford University Press.
Maroney, T., 2006. Law and Emotion: A Proposed Taxonomy of an Emerging Field. Law and Human Behavior [online], 30(2), 119-142. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-006-9029-9 [Accessed 9 January 2019].
Maroney, T.A., 2011. The persistent cultural script of judicial dispassion. California Law Review [online], 99(2), 629–681. Available from: https://doi.org/10.15779/Z38K98M [Accessed 9 January 2019].
McCrudden, C., 2008. Human dignity and judicial interpretation of human rights. European Journal of International Law [online], 19(4), 655-724. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1093/ejil/chn043 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
McCrudden, C., 2013. Introduction [online]. In: C. McCrudden, ed., Understanding Human Dignity. 1st ed. Oxford University Press. Available from: https://doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197265642.001.0001 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
McCrudden, C., 2015. Human rights histories. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies [online], 35(1), 1-34. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1093/ojls/gqu020 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Nussbaum, M.C., 1996. The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics. Princeton University Press.
Nussbaum, M.C., 2001. Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions. Cambridge University Press.
Nussbaum, M.C., 2015. Political Emotions: Why Love Matters for Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
O’Connell, R., 2008. The role of dignity in equality law: Lessons from Canada and South Africa. International Journal of Constitutional Law [online], 6(2), 267-286. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1093/icon/mon004 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Obergefell et al. v Hodges, Director, Ohio Department of Health, et al. _ 576 US (2015).
Prose, F., 2016. The limits of forgiveness. The New York Review of Books [online], 15 December. Available from: https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/12/15/limits-of-forgiveness-manchester-by-the-sea/ [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Raz, J. 1979. The Authority of Law: Essays on Law and Morality. Oxford University Press.
Roach Anleu, S., and Mack, K., 2017. Performing Judicial Authority in the Lower Courts [online]. London: Palgrave. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52159-0 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Robinson, J., 2005. Deeper Than Reason: Emotion and Its Role in Literature, Music, and Art [online]. Oxford University Press. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1093/0199263655.001.0001 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Sanger, C., 2001. The Role and reality of emotions in law. William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice [online], 8(1), 107. Available from: https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmjowl/vol8/iss1/5 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Scheffler, I., 1991. In Praise of the Cognitive Emotions. Abingdon: Routledge.
Scheffler, S., 1987. Morality through thick and thin: A critical notice of ethics and the limits of philosophy. The Philosophical Review [online], 96(3), 411-434. Available from: https://doi.org/10.2307/2185227 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Scott, R.J., 2013. Dignité/Dignidade: Organizing against Threats to Dignity in Societies after Slavery [online]. In: C. McCrudden, ed., Understanding Human Dignity. 1st ed. Oxford University Press. Available from: https://doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197265642.001.0001 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Solomon, R.C., 1977a. The Emotional Register. In: R.C. Solomon, The Passions: Emotions and the Meaning of Life. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 222.
Solomon, R.C., 1977b. The Passions: Emotions and the Meaning of Life. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.
Solomon, R.C., 2003. Not Passion's Slave: Emotions and Choice [online]. Oxford / New York: Oxford University Press. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1093/0195145496.003.0001 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Srinivasan, A., 2017. The aptness of anger. The Journal of Political Philosophy [online], 26(2), 123-144. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/jopp.12130 [Accessed 25 June 2019].
State v Makwanyane and Another [1995] ZACC 3, 1995 (3) SA 391 (CC), 1995 (6) BCLR 665 (CC), [1996] 2 CHRLD 164, 1995 (2) SACR 1 (CC).
Stocker, M. (with E. Hegeman), 1996. Valuing Emotions. Cambridge University Press.
Tasioulas, J., 2013. Human dignity and the foundation of human rights [online]. In: C. McCrudden, ed., Understanding Human Dignity. Oxford University Press, 291-312. Available from: https://doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197265642.003.0016 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Waldron, J., 2010a. Torture, Terror, and Trade-Offs: Philosophy for the White House. Oxford University Press.
Waldron, J., 2010b. Vagueness and the guidance of action. NYU School of Law Public Law Research Paper [online], 10-81. Available from: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1699963 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Waldron, J., 2012a. Dignity, Rank, and Rights [online]. New York: Oxford University Press. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199915439.001.0001 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Waldron, J., 2012b. Stare decisis and the rule of law: A layered approach. New York University Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers [online], Paper 314. Available from: http://lsr.nellco.org/nyu_plltwp/314 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Waldron, J., 2013. Civility and formality. NYU School of Law, Public Law Research Paper [online], nº 13-57. Available from: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2326759 [Accessed 7 November 2019].
Waldron, J., 2016. Transforming our view of the law. New York Review of Books [online], 23 June. Available from: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/06/23/transforming-our-view-of-the-law/ [Accessed 7 November 2019].
White, E.K., 2014. Till human voices wake us: The role of emotion in the adjudication of dignity claims. Journal of Law, Religion and State [online], 3. Available from: https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/jlrs3&i=203&a=eW9ya3UuY2E Accessed 25 November 2019].
White, E.K., 2017. Human dignity in Canadian constitutional law. In: R. Albert, P. Daly and V. MacDonnell, eds., New Frontiers in Constitutional Law. University of Toronto Press.
White, E.K., forthcoming. Emotions in Judicial Reasoning. Oxford University Press.
Williams, B., 1973. Morality and the emotions. In: B. Williams, Problems of the Self: Philosophical Papers 1956-1972. Cambridge University Press.
Williams, B., 1985. Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Williams, P., 1992. The Alchemy of Race and Rights. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2019 Emily Kidd White
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
OSLS strictly respects intellectual property rights and it is our policy that the author retains copyright, and articles are made available under a Creative Commons licence. The Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution No-Derivatives licence is our default licence, further details available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 If this is not acceptable to you, please contact us.
The non-exclusive permission you grant to us includes the rights to disseminate the bibliographic details of the article, including the abstract supplied by you, and to authorise others, including bibliographic databases, indexing and contents alerting services, to copy and communicate these details.
For information on how to share and store your own article at each stage of production from submission to final publication, please read our Self-Archiving and Sharing policy.
The Copyright Notice showing the author and co-authors, and the Creative Commons license will be displayed on the article, and you must agree to this as part of the submission process. Please ensure that all co-authors are properly attributed and that they understand and accept these terms.
