Courtroom Interactions

How are power relations established within the courtroom? Constance Thurley-Hart

Transcript 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Barrister Witness Barrister Witness Barrister Witness Barrister Witness Barrister Witness Barrister Witness Your aim that evening was to go to the discotheque? Yes Presumably you have dressed up for that, had you? Yes And you were wearing makeup? Yes Eye-Shadow? Yes Lipstick? No I was not wearing lipstick You werent wearing lipstick? Just eye-shadow, eye makeup

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Barrister
Witness Barrister

And powder presumably?

Foundation cream, yes You had had bronchitis had you not?

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17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Witness

Yes

Barrister You have mentioned in the course of your evidence about wearing a coat? Witness Witness Yes Well it is a sort of a coat dress, And I bought it with trousers, as a trouser suit Yes Barrister It was not really a coat at all, was it?

Barrister That is it down there isnt it, the red one? Witness Barrister If we call that a dress, if we call that a dress, You had no coat on at all, had you? Witness No Barrister And this is January; it was quite a cold night?

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Witness

Yes it was cold actually

Analysing the Transcript

The Barrister both asks questions and makes statements, yet the Witness only makes statements = Barristers higher authority. Barrister only asks Yes/No Qs which restricts what the witness can say in response, allows the Barrister to have complete control over the direction of the examination, and reinforces the Barristers higher authority

Codes of Conduct

An explicit code or set of rules is imposed within the courtroom, which is enforced by the Judge. Those who breach these rules face negative sanctions. The code helps reinforce the power relations within the courtroom, particularly between witnesses and barristers. Responses must give the precise information required. Do not give more information than is asked for. Witnesses may answer only what is asked; they may not provide un-requested information. -Penman, 1987

Code Flexibility
11 Barrister 12 Witness You werent wearing lipstick? Just eye-shadow, eye makeup.

19 Barrister 20 Witness

It was not really a coat at all was it? Well it is sort of a coat dress, And I bought with trousers, as a trouser suit

Barrister

Now, during the course of your employment with the Internal Revenue Service, have you been required to learn what the filing requirements are for various individuals?
Yes, I have.

Witness Barrister

Why is that? Why do you need to know that?

We need to know what the filing requirements are in order to determine, number one, whether we should request a tax return from someone who has not filed. Also, when we publicize during filing season, we need to be able to tell people who needs to worry about filing a tax return and who doesn't

Witness

Expert Witnesses are subject to different rules than other witnesses during questioning. Although they occupy the same physical spaces as other witnesses, they have more authority.

Front and Back Stage

The court room is Front stage, with Jury acting as an audience for the Barristers and Witnesses performance. Questions are asked for the benefit of the Jury, who have no prior knowledge of the case, and as such are often more explicit and repetitive than those found in other kinds of conversation.

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Barrister
Witness Barrister Witness

Lipstick?
No I was not wearing lipstick You werent wearing lipstick? Just eye-shadow, eye make-up

Back stage consists of the interviews and evidence gathering that happen prior to the case arriving in court.

The Setting

The Set

Furniture Use of height and mass in seating and benches helps reinforce power relationships between interactants. Layout The focal point of the room is the witness box; the witness cannot escape from view or the judges and jurys focus = low power

Costume

Costume

Dress allows interactants to convey the roles they are playing, as well as the status that accompanies that role.
The costume of legal professionals clearly distinguishes them from the Jury, Witnesses, Defendant etc., who are more casually dressed.

References

Luchjenbroers, J 1991, Discourse Dynamics in the Courtroom: Some methodological points of description, La Trobe working papers in linguisitcs, vol. 4 Penman, R 1987, Discourse in courts: cooperation, coercion and coherence, Discourse Processes, vol.10, pp. 201-218.