Judge's (Re)Presentation of Self

SMEJKALOVÁ, Terezie, Markéta ŠTĚPÁNÍKOVÁ and Petr PALÍŠEK. Judge's (Re)Presentation of Self. In Critical Legal Conference. 2021.

Basic information

• Original name: Judge's (Re)Presentation of Self
• Authors: SMEJKALOVÁ, Terezie, Markéta ŠTĚPÁNÍKOVÁ and Petr PALÍŠEK.
• Edition: Critical Legal Conference, 2021.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Presentations at conferences
• Field of Study: 50501 Law
• Country of publisher: Czech Republic
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• Organization unit: Faculty of Law
• Keywords in English: social representations; dignity of a judge; Goffman; presentation of self
• Tags: International impact

Abstract

There are many folk ideas about what a judge is or should be. From images in literature to pop culture or mass media. In an ongoing project, we are testing the possibilities of the methods available within the social representations approach (Moscovici 1963). The social representations approach stems from social psychology and its main benefit is the capability to explore shared folk meanings. We have conducted a research to determine social representation of “a dignified judge” among practicing lawyers, using hierarchical evocation method (Abric 2003). Among the answers, allusions to external characteristics of the performance – manners, appearance, and costume – of a judge emerged. This paper explores the performative dimension of a judge, a character in a performance of a trial, mostly in Goffman’s sense. We report the initial findings of our research and discuss the shared ideas of external characteristics of such a persona to which the participants tend to anchor the judge’s dignity.

Links

• GA20-10171S, research and development project: Name: Využití metod sociální reprezentace v analýze právních konceptů

Investor: Czech Science Foundation