Performing Professionalism – Emotions in Asylum Courts

Abstract

While socio-legal literature widely discusses the role of emotions in courts, refugee studies have yet to embrace a perspective that goes beyond viewing emotions as dichotomous to reason and objectivity. This paper fills this gap by using a socio-legal lens to investigate the role of emotions in asylum decision-making in courts. Based on substantial ethnographic fieldwork at two distinct German administrative courts, this paper shows how judges navigate emotions ranging from empathy to frustration and the way these shape asylum proceedings. The paper argues that judges actively manage the emotional aspects of their work while complying with the cultural script of dispassion, which includes the public performance of impartiality and protective professionalism, distancing themselves from difficult decisions. It highlights how emotions in courts can reveal the complex negotiations of belonging that take place in asylum courts. Therefore, it advocates for a view on courts, particularly asylum decision-making in court, which incorporates judicial emotions.