Between ‘I’ and ‘They’: Distributing Authorship for Evidence-Making: How Asylum Lawyers Construct Credible Accounts Before the French Court of Asylum Law
Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online December, 2025
Between ‘I’ and ‘They’: Distributing Authorship for Evidence-Making: How Asylum Lawyers Construct Credible Accounts Before the French Court of Asylum Law
Lawyers who represent asylum seekers in the French Court (CNDA) face the critical issue of ‘credibility’ on a daily basis. Drawing on legal advice meetings and court hearing sequences, I show how they navigate the tension between applicants’ natural storytelling and the legal framework's demand for consistency. I demonstrate that lawyers possess a ‘professional vision’ that enables them to distribute authorship between the applicants and themselves. On the one hand, the applicant is expected to deliver a genuine account in “I”. But they should also attempt not to defeat judges’ background assumptions. To this end, the lawyer familiarizes their client with this practical “know-how” using suggestion rather than explanation. On the other hand, judges suspiciously address self-identification in typical cases. The lawyer speaking in “they” in their defense speech allows them to rearticulate the applicant's personal reasons into a legal category.
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