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Representing Justice: Architecture and the New Zealand Supreme Court

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thesis
posted on 2021-11-12, 15:04 authored by Watson, Matthew Thomas

This thesis investigates the architectural significance of a recent exemplar of judicial architecture, the New Zealand Supreme Court complex (2010), in order to assess the complex’s design as an embodiment of judicial aspirations. The underlying assumption of this study (based on the works of Goodsell, Edelman, Garapon and others) is that the architecture of the Supreme Court complex legibly responds to its layered (but not always publicly accessible) briefing process, a process which expresses the aspirations of the New Zealand justice system at the beginning of the 21st century. By way of background, the study describes the history of the New Zealand judicial system, outlining the evolution of New Zealand’s court hierarchy (including the genesis of the Supreme Court as New Zealand’s court of final appeal) and of New Zealand’s judicial architecture. The role of the Supreme Court within New Zealand’s constitutional and legal framework is also examined, particularly in relation to recognising and supporting the rule of law and Treaty of Waitangi in New Zealand jurisprudence. The judicial aspirations of the Supreme Court are evinced through analyses of the Supreme Court Act 2003 and the Supreme Court project’s briefing process. These aspirations are coupled with an analysis of the Supreme Court complex’s built form to enable an assessment of architectural expressions in the Supreme Court complex of concepts of judicial independence, history and tradition; the indigenous nature of the Supreme Court; and the Court’s role in upholding the rule of law and sovereignty of Parliament. The outcome of this research is a greater understanding of the function of the Supreme Court complex as a symbol of the judicial values and aspirations for New Zealand’s justice system in the early 21st century. The significant findings of this study are that the Supreme Court complex is legibly successful in terms of its architectural engagement with New Zealand’s judicial heritage and the contemporary approaches of openness, transparency and access in the judicial system, but that the architecture the Supreme Court fails to appropriately engage with the significance of the on-going M􀀀ori–Crown constitutional relationship embodied in the Treaty of Waitangi, evincing a disconnect between the judicial aspirations expressed at the establishment of the institution and those expressed in the Court’s built form. It is suggested that this discrepancy highlights a layering of aspirations that occurred in the Supreme Court complex’s briefing process.

History

Copyright Date

2012-01-01

Date of Award

2012-01-01

Publisher

Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington

Rights License

Author Retains Copyright

Degree Discipline

Architecture

Degree Grantor

Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington

Degree Level

Masters

Degree Name

Master of Architecture

Victoria University of Wellington Item Type

Awarded Research Masters Thesis

Language

en_NZ

Victoria University of Wellington School

School of Architecture

Advisors

Skinner, Robin