Phil Bowen
Our courts may seem an unlikely place for innovation. Their image tends to be of slow legal procedurals, bewigged judges and sturdy impassive court buildings, symbolising solidity, continuity and tradition.
But our up and coming conference, Better Courts 2015, will challenge that view. Instead, speakers from across the UK and around the world will explain how in many cases courts are at the heart of fascinating new thinking and practice.
Take the Family Drug and Alcohol Court in London, hearing cases on child care proceedings. There, a judge and a team of social and health workers is rethinking how the court can make a difference to the lives of families suffering from substance abuse and the threat of children being taken away.
Or look at the inspirational work done by Judge Victoria Pratt at the community court in Newark, New Jersey, where she combines tough love and a determined attachment to fairness to address the offending of adults who keep cycling through the system.
Then there’s the countrywide attempt to ensure that people coming to court, often with undiagnosed and unmet mental health needs, are given access to assessment and services in order to make that next court appearance their last.
At the heart of our Better Courts work is an argument about the meaning and the purpose of our courts. Are they to be places where justice is simply processed, where cases go through the machine? Or, can they also be places of opportunity— combining punishment and help to solve not just crime but the social harms which blight communities?
Are they to be places where people are treated as just another case, or can they be places where individuals are heard, treated with respect and given a voice?
Perhaps most importantly of all, former Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer will challenge us to think about our obligations to victims and witnesses. How do we treat them with sensitivity and as people seeking redress, rather than simply as another source of evidence in a trial?
Of course, our conference can only do so much. It can’t provide all of the solutions and it can’t deliver pounds and pence to would-be innovators seeking to try something new. But what it can do is to inspire: inspire those already changing things in their court to reflect, adapt and continue; inspire those seeking to adopt change by celebrating new, existing practice; and inspire us all, policymakers, politicians, journalists, practitioners and others, to ask searching questions and tentatively grasp for new solutions. If we do that, Better Courts 2015 will have succeeded.
Better Courts 2015 will take place in London on 3-4 February. Tickets are free of charge – visit our events page for more information and to request an invitation.