Court Design in a Digital Age. – A Recap of the 2023 Annual Essex Law School Lecture with Professor Linda Mulcahy

On February 8, the Essex Law School hosted the 2023 Annual Essex Law Lecture with the support of the local professions, Suffolk, and North Essex Law Society (SNELS). This year’s guest of honour was Professor Linda Mulcahy, the Director of the Centre of Socio-Legal Studies at Oxford University. The lecture entitled ‘Design in a Digital Age: learning from the past and thinking about the future.’

The event started at 4:30 pm at the Ivor Crew- Foyer with a drink’s reception. It was a delightful opportunity to network with large firms and professional bodies before the lecture. At 5:00 pm the crowd was ushered into the Ivor Crewe Lecture Hall where the event started with an opening speech from the Dean of the Essex Law School Professor Onyeka Osuji and a speech from the President of the Suffolk and North Essex Law Society Amanda Timcke.

What did we learn?

During this lecture, Professor Linda Mulcahy made relevant points about the historical ideas behind the UK courthouse designs from the medieval era to online courts.

This lecture gave an insight into how courtroom designs prepare people for justice. Professor Linda Mulcahy emphasized on the courtroom designs and their purpose of indicating that you are in a special space. The Israeli civil court was cited as an example of how its architectural design illustrates the journey of the courts.

Professor Linda Mulcahy used a parallel analysis of colour coding in airports to direct passengers in certain directions. Similarly, the architectural designs of courts tend to nudge people into doing things and behaving in a certain type of way that is acceptable or not acceptable. Furthermore, she pointed out that the best courts are usually calming in nature. For instance, the Australian family courts have trees and gardens.

In continuation, Professor Linda Mulcahy demonstrated the presence of a hierarchy in physical courts, degradation of rituals and fear of proximity. This then brought about the debate on whether digitalised courts can do better or can improve access to justice.

Learning from the past and thinking about the future:

The digitalisation of courts was referred to as ‘digital justice’ which includes paperless hearings, online dispute resolutions, video links which facilitate remote testimonials and virtual trials which were quite common during the COVID-19 lockdown. Digital justice proved that the attitude of the judiciary has changed in the sense that they are more open-minded.

During a virtual trial study conducted by Professor Linda Mulcahy, it was observed that having digitalised courts meant that members of the public who take part as jurors felt a psychological connection to the people on the screen with them. Virtual trials allowed individuals to put whom they were using their names. This meant that everyone was identifiable. In addition, they are several advantages of having virtual trials. These advantages meant that having a screen minimised the ideological concept of hierarchy in the courtroom; it also maintained a sense of gravitas; it protected the vulnerable which meant that the trial would not take place unless these people were able to appear online.

However, virtual trials are not perfect themselves. They are ways it can be improved if we think differently. Professor Linda Mulcahy revealed that online hearings desperately need online waiting rooms; resources need to be customized and we need to think about how we can support those that are digitally disadvantaged. At the end of the lecture, several questions were asked by professionals, academics, and students from the crowd.

Overall, the 2023 Annual Essex Law Lecture was an absolute success and indeed a round of applause was well deserved. We the Essex Law School would like to thank Professor Linda Mulcahy for accepting our invitation and for delivering a mind-blowing lecture. We would also like to thank the support of the SNELS, the professional academics, the students that came for the event and everyone that made this event happen. Something for next year is cooking up.