Investigating trial spaces: Thinking through legal spatiality beyond the court

Abstract

The geography of courts is changing. Increased use of technology, restricted government budgets, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic have all contributed to new, often more spatially dispersed, arrangements for criminal justice procedures across the world (Gacek, 2022;Godfrey et al., 2022;Schmitz, 2019). In the context of the England and Wales court system, the focus of this paper, these changes have been acutely felt because half of all courts have closed between 2010 and 2019, with a further 77 courts slated to close before the end of 2024 (Law Society, 2021). Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) proposed these changes in order to use technology 'to create a modern, more userfocused and efficient service' (Ministry of Justice and HMCTS, 2015, np). However, emerging research has documented