Body Language and Trust Building in Legal Practice

Objective Good Faith, Procedural Cooperation, and Professional Ethics

Abstract

This paper analyzes body language as a relevant behavioral dimension in contemporary legal practice, particularly in the context of objective good faith, procedural cooperation, and professional ethics. The research problem investigates how gestures, postures, and eye contact influence the construction of credibility and trust in legal negotiations and procedural interactions. The study adopts a qualitative juridical-dogmatic and hermeneutic approach, based on bibliographic and documentary analysis of civil and procedural doctrine, nonverbal communication theory, and case law from the Brazilian Superior Court of Justice. The findings indicate that body language does not constitute an autonomous legal validity criterion but operates as a factual dimension of externalized conduct, potentially reinforcing perceptions of good faith, cooperation, and professional integrity, while respecting epistemological limits of gesture interpretation.