Empathy, Democratic Politics, and the Impartial Juror

Prevailing views of impartiality in law fail to see the important contributions that properly structured sentiments can make to the impartial deliberation of jurors. This article suggests a new approach to impartial judgment and new criteria for the impartial juror. Central to this account is a normative theory of empathy as the legally appropriate communication of sentiments that are democratically endorsable. The cultivation of the requisite empathy calls not only for revisions to the jury system but also for the right political institutions and for a public culture of civic engagement and democratic contestation.