Law and the Passions: Why Emotion Matters for Justice

Although the connection of law, passion and emotion has become an established focus in legal scholarship, the extent to which emotion has always been, and continues to be, a significant influence in informing legal reasoning, decision-making, decision-avoidance and legal judgment - rather than an adjunct - is still a matter for critical analysis.

Engaging with the underlying social context in which emotional states are a motivational force - and have produced key legal principles and controversial judgments, as evidenced in a range of illustrative legal cases - Law and the Passions: A Discrete History provides a uniquely inclusive commentary on the significance and influence of emotions in the history and continuing development of legal institutions and legal dogma. Law, it is argued, is a passion; and, as such, it is a primarily emotional endeavour.