Abstract
In several countries, governments have embarked on major building expansion programs for their judiciaries. The new buildings posit the courtroom as their center and the judge as that room’s pivot. These contemporary projects follow the didactic path laid out in Medieval and Renaissance town halls, which repeatedly deployed symbolism in efforts to shape norms. Dramatic depictions then reminded judges to be loyal subjects of the state. In contrast, modern buildings narrate not only the independence of judges but also the dominion of judges, insulated from the state. The significant allocation of public funds reflects the prestige accorded to courts by governments that dispatch world-renowned architects to design these icons of the state.
All rights reserved, 2013. Our discussion and the reproduction of the images relate to the book, Representing Justice: Invention, Controversy, and Rights in City-States and Democratic Courtrooms (Yale Press, 2011) by Judith Resnik and Dennis E. Curtis, on which Allison Tait worked. We have benefitted from exchanges with and the provision of materials and images by participants in the building programs in many countries, including Marie Bels, Michael Black, Antoine Garapon, Susan Harrison, Robert Jacob, Andrea Leers, Jane Loeffler, Christine Mengin, Jean-Paul Miroglio, Christine Mengin, Linda Mulcahy, Simon Roberts, Douglas Woodlock, and Elizabeth Zoller.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
See, for example, American Institute of Architects (AIA), Academy of Architecture for Justices (AAJ), Goals, at http://network.aia.org/academyofarchitectureforjustice/home/. AAJ is one of several “knowledge communities” of the American Institute for Architects and “promotes and fosters the exchange of information and knowledge between members, professional organizations, and the public for high-quality planning, design, and delivery of justice architecture.”
- 2.
Examples include the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms art. 6(1), Nov. 4, 1950, 213 U.N.T.S. 221, 228; and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights G.A. Res. 2200A (XXI), art. 14, U.N. Doc. 1/6316 (Dec. 16, 1966).
- 3.
Jeremy Bentham, Rationale of Judicial Evidence, in 6 The Works of Jeremy Bentham 351.
- 4.
For example, French guidelines detailed somewhat different seating arrangements for civil and criminal proceedings, while common law countries generally use the same room for both kinds of cases. See, for example, Palais de Justice de Grenoble, 24–26 (Ministère de la Justice, 2003).
- 5.
Plan to Eliminate the Hearing Backlog and Prevent its Recurrence, 4.
- 6.
Annual Report of the Judicial Conference of the United States (hereinafter JCUS), Sept 24–25, 1953 at 28.
- 7.
Administrative Office of the US Courts, Space and Facilities Committee, US Courts Design Guide (1991, 1997, 2007).
- 8.
Judicial Conference Adopts Courtroom Sharing Policy as Latest Cost-Saver, 40 Third Branch 1 (Sept., 2008).
- 9.
General Accounting Office, GAO-02-341, Courthouse Construction: Information on Courtroom Sharing at 3 (2002).
- 10.
Status of Courthouse Construction, Review of New Construction Request for the US Mission to the United Nations, and Comments on H.R. 2751, To Amend the Public Buildings Act of 1959 to Improve the Management and Operations of the US General Services Administration: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Public Buildings and Economic Development of the H. Comm. on Transportation and Infrastructure, 105th Cong. 22 (July 16, 1998) (testimony of Robert A. Peck, Commissioner, Public Buildings Service, GSA).
- 11.
The Future of Federal Courthouse Construction Program: Results of a GAO Study on the Judiciary’s Rental Obligations: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management of the H. Comm. on Transportation and Infrastructure, 109th Cong. 269 (June 22, 2006) (statement of David L. Winstead, Commissioner, Public Buildings Service, GSA).
- 12.
“Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture” are reproduced in I Vision + Voice at 4–5.
- 13.
Growth, Efficiency and Modernism: GSA Buildings of the 1950’s, 60’s, and 70’s at 45.
- 14.
See, for example, The Need for Architectural Improvement in the Design of Federal Buildings, Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Buildings and Grounds of the S. Comm. on Public Works, 95th Cong. (1977).
- 15.
Design Excellence: Policies and Procedures 169 (Washington D.C.: US General Services Administration, 2008) (hereinafter 2008 GSA Design Excellence Policies and Procedures).
- 16.
La nouvelle architecture judiciaire: Des palais de justice modernes pour une nouvelle image de la Justice 3, 103 (New judicial architecture: Modern Courthouses for a new image of Justice)(hereinafter New French Judicial Architecture). This volume was produced in relationship to a colloquium held in Nanterre, France, in May, 2000.
- 17.
Between 1975 and 1995, caseloads tripled; during the 1990s, the number of magistrates increased 40%. Mengin, Deux siècles d’architecture judiciaire aux Etats-Unis et en France (Two Centuries of Judicial Architecture in the United States and France), 11.
- 18.
L’Agence de Maîtrise d’Ouvrage des Travaux du Ministère de la Justice, 2004 Rapport d’activité, 29.
- 19.
One event, “Palais de Justice: héritage et projets” (“Courthouses: legacy and projects”), was convened in Paris in 1994. See Robert Jacob, The Historical Development of Courthouse Architecture, 14 Zodiac 31, 43, n. 2 (hereinafter Jacob, Historical Development). Papers from that conference can be found in 265 Archicrée (1995).
- 20.
Interview with René Eladari, Director of the Ministry of Justice Long Term Planning Program, 265 Archicrée 79.
- 21.
L’Agence de Mâitrise d’Ouvrage des Travaux du Ministère de la Justice. 2004 Rapport d’activitéat 7, 28.
- 22.
Commentary, Jean Nouvel, Courthouse in Nantes (hereinafter Nouvel, Commentary), 28.
- 23.
See Palais de Justice de Nice (Ministère de Justice, 2004).
- 24.
Rozenberg, Civil Justice Centre Shines in Court Gloom, Telegraph, (Apr. 19, 2008), http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1584453/Civil-Justice-Centre-shines-in-court-gloom.html. Rozenberg noted that the glossy new court, with six “specialist commercial judges,” was hoping to “drum up more work.”
- 25.
An overview of several projects is provided in Les Nouveaux Visages de La Justice, 1–5.
- 26.
More Disciplined Approach Would Reduce Cost and Provide for Better Decision making, Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management and the District of Columbia, GAO/T-GGD-96-19 at 3 (Testimony of William J. Gadsby).
- 27.
See 1997 US Courts Design Guide, 4–39.
- 28.
Directive 2008/52/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (on certain aspects of mediation in civil and commercial matters)(21 May 2008) at Art. 1, sec. 1 and Art. 5, sec. 2.
- 29.
See General Accounting Office, Courtroom Construction: Better Courtrooms Use Data Could Enhance Facility Planning and Decision making GAO/GGD-97-39 at 42–43 (1997).
- 30.
The 2007 US Courts Design Guide eliminated the dedicated ADR spaces, suggesting use of conference rooms and jury rooms instead. Id. at 1–2, 11–2.
- 31.
For example, in the United States, state and federal courts in the 1980s and 1990s commissioned more than 50 reports on problems of gender, racial, and ethnic bias in the courts (Resnik 1996).
- 32.
Examples included a federal courthouse designed by Richard Meier in Islip, New York, that Byard called “striking and strictly beautiful” while “literally and figuratively a monumental white void.” Byard, 142–143.
- 33.
Email from Chief Justice Michael Black to Judith Resnik, March 21, 2006.
- 34.
2005 Office of Native Title Newsletter, Ngaanyatjarra Lands, 1.
- 35.
Mervyn/Ngaanyatjarra Lands v. Western Australia at para. 2.
- 36.
Mervyn/Ngaanyatjarra Lands v. Western Australia at para. 15.
Bibliography
Aymonino, Carlo. 1995. Palazzo di Giustizia di Lecce, Italia. Zodiac 14: 118–127.
Bels, Marie. 1995a. L’Image Architecturale de la Justice (The architectural image of justice). Paris: AMOTMJ
Bels, Marie. 1995b. Concours gagnés, councours perdus. Vers la fixation ou l’abolition d’un modèle (New directions in the design of law courts). Archicrée 265(94–103): 145.
Benhabib, Seyla. 2002. The claims of culture, equality and diversity in the global era. Princeton: Princeton U. Press.
Bentham, Jeremy. 1843. The works of Jeremy Benthami, ed. John Bowring vol 6, Rationale of Judicial Evidence. Edinburgh: William Tait.
Bletter, Rosemarie Haag. 1981. The interpretation of the glass dream– Expressionist architecture and the history of the crystal metaphor. Soc. Architectural Historians 40: 20–43.
Bletter, Rosemarie Haag. 2002. Opaque transparency. In The light construction reader, ed. Todd Gannon and Jeffrey Kipnis, 115–120. New York: The Monacelli Press.
Bürklin, T. 2004. With a touch of internationality and modernity. In The federal constitutional court of Germany: Architecture and Jurisdiction (Das Bundesverfassungsgericht in Karlsruhe: Architektur und Rechtsprechung), 15–42. Basel: Birkhauser.
Byard, Paul Spencer. 2006. Reading the architecture of today’s courthouse. In Celebrating the Courthouse, ed. Steven Flanders, 133–152. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Cannell, Michael. 1998. Doing justice. Washington Post, February 8.
Commentary, Jean Nouvel, Courthouse in Nantes. 2000. Architecture + Urbanism 11: 28–32.
Congressional Budget Office. 2000. The one courtroom, one-judge policy: A preliminary review, April 2000.
Cragg, Randy. 1995. Monuments to a crime-fearing age. N.Y. Times Magazine, May 28.
Craig, Lois. 1978. The federal presence: Architecture, politics, and symbols in United States government building. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Crary, Jonathan. 1992. Techniques of the observer: On vision and modernity in the nineteenth century. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Curtis, Dennis E., and Judith Resnik. 1987. Images of justice. Yale Law Journal 96: 1727–1772.
Davis, Natalie Zemon. 2000. The gift in sixteenth-century France. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Dean, Andrea Oppenheimer. 2000. The nation’s biggest landlord just found style: GSA: Uncle Sam speaks up for high design. Architectural Review 189: 62.
Depambour-Tarride, Laurence. 2002. Etude sur les oeuvres crées au titre du 1% artistique dans les palais de justice realisés par la délégation générale au programme pluriannuel d’équipement depuis 1993 et Essai sur le renouvellement de la symbolique judiciaire (A Study of the works created in courthouses under the 1% art provision since 1993 and Essay on the renewal of justice symbolism). AMOTMJ.
Duff, Antony, Lindsay Farmer, Sandra Marshall, and Victor Tadros, eds. 2004, 2006, 2007. Trial on trial series. Oxford: Hart Publishing.
Ersoy, Ufuk. 2008. Seeing through glass: The fictive role of glass in shaping architecture from Joseph Paxton’s crystal palace to Bruno Taut’s Glashaus. Submitted for Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, School of Architecture; UMI, AAT no. 3328551.
Fierro, Annette. 2003. The glass state: The technology of the spectacle, Paris 1981–1998. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Fraser, Nancy. 1992. Rethinking the public sphere: A contribution to the critique of actually existing democracy. In Habermas and the public sphere, ed. Craig Calhoun, 109–142. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Galanter, Marc. 2004. The vanishing trial: An examination of trials and related matters in federal and state courts. J. Empirical Legal Stud. 1: 459–570.
Garapon, Antoine. Imaginer le palais de justice du XXIème siècle (Imagining the courthouse of the 21st century, hereinafter Imagining the courthouse) (manuscript)
Garapon, Antoine. 1995. Rituel et symbolisme judiciaires (The symbolism of the courtroom). In “Construire pour la Justice” special edition of Architecture intérieure Crée. Archicrée 265: 54–60, p. 142 is a summary of the article in translation. Pages either incomplete or inaccurate.
General Services Administration Design Guide. 1979, 1984. General Services Administration, Washington, D.C.
Genn, Hazel. 2010. Judging civil justice (The Hamlyn lectures). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gibson, Michael. 1994. Cartier foundation’s glass house. N. Y. Times, May 14.
Gore, Violet. 2000. Pure justice: Law courts, Nantes, France. Architecture Review 208: 71–74.
Gouttes, Bernard. 2000. La nouvelle architecture judiciaire et l’évolution de la conception des palais de justice (New judicial architecture and the evolution of the concept of courthouses). In La nouvelle architecture judiciaire: Des palais de justice modernes pour une nouvelle image de la Justice (New Judicial architecture: Modern Courthouses and a new image of Justice), 9–11. Paris: La documentation Française.
Greene, Frank. 2006. The image of the courthouse. In Celebrating the courthouse, ed. Steven Flanders, 63–80. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Kamin, Blair. 1999. Fortress architecture: Don’t let terrorists design our buildings. Chicago Tribune, December 5.
Hanoteau, Claude. 2000. Rennes–La Renaissance du Parlement de Bretagne: réaménager dans un cadre chargé d’histoire, (Rennes—the Renaissance of the Brittany’s Parliament: Renovation in the historic context). In La nouvelle architecture judiciaire: Des palais de justice modernes pour une nouvelle image de la Justice (New judicial architecture: Modern courthouses and a new image of Justice), 28–32. Paris: La documentation Française.
Hanson, Julienne. 1996. The architecture of justice: Iconography and space configuration in the English law court building. Architectural Research Quarterly 1: 50–59.
Herodotus. 2003. The histories. Trans. Aubrey de Selincourt, as revised by John Marincola. New York: Penguin Classics.
Hornby, Brock. 2007. The business of the US district courts. Green Bag 2d 10: 453–468.
Jacob, Robert. 1995. La justice, ses demeures et ses symboles. Perspective historique (Justice: Its buildings and symbols. A historic perspective). Archicrée. 265: 46–53.
Jacob, Robert. 1999. The historical development of courthouse architecture. Zodiac. 14: 30–43.
LaFountain, Robert, Richard Schauffler, Shauna Strickland, Chantal Bromage, Sarah Gibson, Ashley Mason, and William Raftery. 2009. Examining the work of state courts: A national perspective from the court statistics project. National Center for State Courts, Williamsburg, Virginia.
Lamanda, Vincent. 2000. Magistratures et images du palais de justice (The judiciary and images of the courthouse). In La nouvelle architecture judiciaire: Des palais de justice modernes pour une nouvelle image de la Justice (New judicial architecture: Modern courthouses and a new image of justice), 59–62. Paris: La documentation Française.
Leers, Andrea. 2006. Urban design and the courthouse: How sites shape solutions. In Celebrating the courthouse: A guide for architects, their clients, and the public, ed. Steven Flanders, 110–132. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Lederer, Frederic L. 2006. The courtroom in the age of technology. In Celebrating the courthouse, ed. Steven Flanders, 189–201. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Loeffler, Jane C. 1998. The architecture of diplomacy: Building America’s embassies. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
Loeffler, Jane C. 1999. New designs of embassies and courthouses expose the politics of architecture. But, are architects political enough? Architectural Record 187: 33.
Mengin, Christine. 2008. Construire Pour Juger. Un Tour de France des Palais de Justice. (Building for judging. A tour of French courthouses). In Tour de France: Eine historische Rundreise, Festschrift für Rainer Hudemann, 270–281. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
McKean, John. 1994. Crystal palace: Joseph Paxton and Charles Fox. London: Phaidon.
Mohr, Richard. 2005. Some conditions for culturally diverse deliberation. Canadian J. of Law and Society 20: 87–102.
Moinard, Marc. 1995. Le monument rehabilitée. Les grandes options de la politique de construction judiciaire (The rehabilitated monument. Major policy options for judicial construction). Archicrée. 265: 70–77.
Mulcahy, Linda. 2007. Architects of justice: The politics of court house design. Social and Legal Studies. 16: 383–403.
Muratore, Giorgio. 1988. Law courts in the modern city. Zodiac 14: 44–61.
Nakamura, David. 2005. Architects promise visionary D.C. Ballpark: HOK sport considers such encompassing themes as ‘Transparency of Democracy’ for Design. Wash Post, April 1.
O’Mahony, Hugh. 2004. Happy birthday to the court that has heard 12 cases in eight years. Lloyd’s List, November 2.
Phillips, Todd S. 2006. Courthouse design at a crossroads. In Celebrating the courthouse, ed. Steven Flanders, 202–223. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Report of the Proceedings of the Judicial Conference of the United States. 1971, 1987, 1989. Administrative Office of the United States Courts, Washington, D.C.
Resnik, Judith. 1982. Managerial judges. Harvard Law Review 96: 376–448.
Resnik, Judith. 1996. Asking about gender in courts. Signs 21: 952–60.
Resnik, Judith. 2000. Trial as error, jurisdiction as injury: Transforming the meaning of Article III. Harvard Law Review 113: 924–1037.
Resnik, Judith, and Dennis E. Curtis. 2007. Representing justice: From Renaissance iconography to twenty-first century courthouses. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 151: 139–183.
Resnik, Judith, and Dennis E. Curtis. 2011. Representing Justice: Invention, Controversy, and Rights in City-States and Democratic Courtrooms, Yale University Press.
Roberts, Simon. 2009. “Listing concentrates the mind”: The English civil court as an Arena for structured settlement. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 29: 1–23.
Rosen, Frederick. 1983. Jeremy Bentham and representative democracy: A study of the constitutional code. Oxford: Clarendon.
Rozenberg, Joshua. 2008. Civil justice centre shines in court gloom. Telegraph, April 19. http://www.telegraph.co.uk.uknews/1584453/Civil-Justince-Centre-shines-in-court-gloom.html.
Saboya, Marc. 2000. Réflexions sur un projet controversé: le nouveau tribunal de grande instance de Bordeaux (Reflections on a controversial project: the new courthouse in Bordeaux). In La nouvelle architecture judiciaire: Des palais de justice modernes pour une nouvelle image de la Justice (New judicial architecture: Modern courthouses and a new image of Justice), 63–64. Paris: La documentation Française.
Schofield, Philip. 2006. Utility and democracy: The political thought of Jeremy Bentham. New York: Oxford University Press.
Seneca. 1928. De Ira (On anger). In Moral essays. Trans. and ed. John W. Basore. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Simon, Philippe. 2000. Les Palais de justice dans l’architecture contemporaine (Courthouses in contemporary architecture), In La nouvelle architecture judiciaire: Des palais de justice modernes pour une nouvelle image de la Justice (New judicial architecture: Modern courthouses and a new image of Justice), 63. Paris: La documentation Française.
Thacker, Philip Gerald. 2005. Components of a comprehensive judiciary-directed facilities program (prepared for the World Back). http://siteresources.worldbankorg/INTLAWJUSTINST/Resources/Components.pdf.
US Courts Design Guide. 1991, 1997, 2007. Judicial Conference of the United States, Washington, D.C.
Vidler, Anthony. 2003. Fantasy, the uncanny and surrealist theories of architecture. Papers of Surrealism, No. 1.
Woodlock, Douglas P. 2006. Drawing meaning from the heart of the courthouse. In Celebrating the courthouse: A guide for architects, their clients, and the public, ed. Steven Flanders, 155–167. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Woolf, Lord Harry. 1996. Access to justice, final report to the Lord Chancellor on the civil justice system in England and Wales. London: HMSO.
Zapalac, Kristin Eldyss Sorensen. 1990. “In his image and likeness”: Political iconography and religious change in Regensburg, 1500–1600. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Zulberty, Michel. 2000. Impressions sur la nouvelle architecture (Thoughts on new architecture). In La nouvelle architecture judiciaire: Des palais de justice modernes pour une nouvelle image de la Justice (New judicial architecture: Modern courthouses and a new image of Justice), 57–59. Paris: La documentation Française.
Hearings and Institutional Studies
L’Agence de Maîtrise d’Ouvrage des Travaux du Ministère de la Justice. 2004 Rapport d’activité.
Collection of promotional brochures for new courthouses. This collection was put together by the DGPPE and published by the Ministry of Justice. There are also brochures for Nice, Rennes, Melun, Monclar, Pontoise, Besançon, and Grenoble.
Directive 2008/52/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (on certain aspects of mediation in civil and commercial matters), 21 May 2008.
General Accounting Office, Courthouse Construction: Sufficient Data and Analysis Would Help Resolve the Courtroom-Sharing Issue GAO-01-70, December 2000.
Growth, Efficiency and Modernism: GSA Buildings of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. 2006. Washington: US General Services Administration.
GSA and The Business of Buildings: Building, Maintaining, and Managing Federal Space. In GSA MarkeTips, 18:6–22. Washington, DC: US General Service Administration.
History of the Administrative Office of the United States: Sixty Years of Service to the Federal Judiciary. 2000. Washington, DC.
Interview with René Eladari, Director of the Ministry of Justice Long Term Planning Program. 1995. Archicrée 265: 78–85.
Judicial Conference Adopts Courtroom Sharing Policy as Latest Cost-Saver, 40 Third Branch 1 (Sept., 2008).
Les Nouveaux Visages de La Justice, extraits des numéros 5125 and 5132 du Moniteur, February 15, 2002, and April 5, 2002. Ministry of Justice & AMOTMJ.
More Disciplined Approach Would Reduce Cost and Provide for Better Decision making, Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management and the District of Columbia, GAO/T-GGD-96-19 (Testimony of William J. Gadsby).
Office of Native Title Newsletter, Ngaanyatjarra Lands. 2005. Edition 6
Social Security Administration Office of Disability Adjudication and Review. 2008. Plan to eliminate the hearing backlog and prevent its recurrence, Annual Report, FY 2008.
Stanley Mervyn, Adrian Young, and Livingston West and others on behalf of the Peoples of the Ngaanyatjarra Lands v. the State of Western Australia and others (2005), FCA 831.
Status of Courthouse Construction, Review of New Construction Request for the US Mission to the United Nations, and Comments on H.R. 2751, To Amend the Public Buildings Act of 1959 to Improve the Management and Operations of the US General Services Administration: Hearing of the Subcomm. on Public Buildings and Economic Development of the H. Comm. on Transportation and Infrastructure, 105th Cong. 22–29, 44–81 (July 16, 1998) (testimony and statement of Robert A. Peck, Commissioner, Public Buildings Service, GSA).
The Renaissance of the Federal Courthouse. 2002. Third Branch 34: 1.
The Use of Courtrooms in the US District Courts: A Report to the Judicial Conference Committee on Court Administration & Case Management. http://www.fjc.gov/public/pdf.nsf/lookup/ctrmuser.pdf/$file/ctrmuser.pdf.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Resnik, J., Curtis, D., Tait, A. (2014). Constructing Courts: Architecture, the Ideology of Judging, and the Public Sphere. In: Wagner, A., Sherwin, R. (eds) Law, Culture and Visual Studies. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9322-6_23
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9322-6_23
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-9321-9
Online ISBN: 978-90-481-9322-6
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawLaw and Criminology (R0)