Let justice be done: A performative view on Portuguese criminal trial procedures

Abstract

Based on fieldwork at criminal courts in the metropolitan area of Lisbon, the article examines the performativity of criminal justice. The written and unwritten rules of criminal trial procedures are analysed as judicial scripts that guide the “making” of Justice. The formalities of the criminal trial, like those that prescribe the correct behaviour of defendants in Portuguese courts, are tied to the liminality of their social standing and their betwixt-and-between position in the court and in society. Script compliance is discussed as a central element within the production of criminal justice. Finally, the article suggests a performative view of justice, drawing on Butler's ideas regarding the enactment and construction of notions of gender.