Questioning the connection between access to law and justice and courthouse architecture

Abstract

Considering access to law and justice in a broad sense also means considering issues that may contribute to curtail that right, and which are beyond the citizens' conditions of economical sufficiency or insufficiency. Subsequently there is a concern with access to law and justice in spatial terms, i.e., the way in which the space of the courts – external and internal – can help facilitate or limit the access of citizens to law and justice. Thus, questions arise regarding whether law and justice really do need palaces and/or rituals, or whether there should be a new model of court, one that could better fit the needs that law and justice demand nowadays.