Third Justice Environments Conference
Architecture, technology and security for courts and tribunals
Call for Papers 20-22 May 2010
Hosted by the University of Western Sydney, the Court of the Future Network and the Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration.
International distinguished speakers include:
Professor Neal Feigenson, Quinnipiac University Law School (USA)
Christina Spiesel, M.A. Yale University Law School, artist and art historian (USA)
Professor David Marrani, Essex University Law School (UK)
Professor Damian Schofield, State University of New York, Oswego (USA)
Louise Kennedy, Louise Kennedy Architects, Perth, Australia
Conference themes include:
Court design and architecture
Court safety and security
Emerging technologies
Sustainability
Politics of court architecture
Visual representations of justice
The conference will include a major exhibition on court architecture, themed tours of court buildings, displays and demonstrations of new technologies, lectures by leading architects and scholars, and presentation of papers. Architecture and technology firms are invited to participate in the following displays:·
Exhibition of recent or current court projects – new or restored, whole buildings or specific facilities.
Technology trade stand – display, recording, security or other technologies relevant to courts and tribunals.
The deadline for the submission of abstracts is 1 April 2010.
Professor Neal R. Feigenson is a professor of law at Quinnipiac University and a research affiliate in the Yale University Department of Psychology. His research interests relate to the application of social and cognitive psychology to legal decision-making and the role of visual communication and rhetoric in law. He holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. from the University of Maryland. He is the author of "Legal Blame: How We Think and Talk about Accidents (American Psychological Association Books 2000)" and has published articles in numerous law and psychology journals.
Christina Spiesel is a senior research scholar in law at Yale Law School. Her subjects are visual persuasion, writing, art and visual culture, and digital technology, and has published widely in the fields of law and visual communications. She is an adjunct professor at New York Law School and Quinnipiac University, and a Faculty Associate at the Institute for Writing and Thinking at Bard College. She holds an M.A. from the University of Chicago and a B.A from Shimer College. She is also a visual artist, presenting in a number of individual and group exhibitions. Professor Feigenson and Ms. Spiesel have recently published a major book on technology and courts, “Law on Display: The Digital Transformation of Legal Persuasion and Judgement” (2009, New York University Press). It is a comprehensive study of how new visual technologies are transforming both the practice and culture of law.
Professor Damian Schofield is currently the Director of the Human-Computer Interaction Program in the Computer Science Department at the State University of New York, Oswego. He has been involved in the research and development of the use of digital evidence in courtrooms, particularly virtual reconstructions, for many years. Much of his research work is based around developing virtual reality based training environments. The interactive applications developed range from chemical plants to crime scenes and from office environments to driving simulators.
Louise St. John Kennedy is a leading international architect with an emphasis on sustainability and social justice. She has a unique perspective with degrees in both psychology and architecture, leading to an intense interest in how people use public spaces as well as community, sustainability and social justice issues. She has received numerous design awards from the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, the Fremantle Award and the prestigious National Robin Boyd Award for architecture. She is the joint author of “Court Perspectives: Architecture, Psychology and Law Reform in Western Australia.”
David Marrani is a Lecturer in Public Law at the University of Essex. Educated in France and the UK, he holds a Licence d’Administration Publique. He holds Masters degrees in Comparative law and Local Government Management (Droit Comparé des Etats euro-mediterraneéns), and Philosophy and Psychoanalysis (University of Essex), as well as a BA in Public Law. His current research interest focuses on the philosophy of court architecture. He is director of a program that qualifies lawyers to practice both in England and Wales and France.
About the Justice Environments Network
The Court of the Future Network is a group of architects, engineers, psychologists, judicial officers, lawyers, criminologists and others in Australia and New Zealand who work closely with court communities to improve the quality of justice environments.
Description of Activities
Our interests include both the physical and psychological setting of courts and tribunals, and also the processes and rituals of justice. We identify emerging issues, carry out research to work out how new approaches might work in the real world for the court, and disseminate information through a series of conferences and workshops. We have run two national conferences on court architecture, security and technology; plus four jury research and practice conferences.
We also develop research projects in consultation with court communities. One has been completed - Juror satisfaction (CRC-funded; led by Jane Goodman-Delahunty). An ARC-funded project on Mental Health Tribunals is led by Terry Carney. Three other current ARC-funded projects are led by David Tait: Juries and Interactive Visual Evidence ('JIVE'), Gateways to Justice (about remote communications in courts), and Fortress or Sanctuary: Enhancing court safety by managing people, places and processes.