ABSTRACT
The fi rst thing that strikes any visitor to the public area of a British Crown courtroom is the strangeness of the setting. Everything about it produces a sense of nervous excitement and hushed voices: the layered space with the judge supreme, routines of standing to the call of ‘All rise!’, lawyers in wigs and robes, no windows, witnesses looking nervous and dressed up for the occasion. One feels almost like an intruder in a private space, a feeling intensifi ed by the fact that cases often originate in the private domain of domestic matters, but the spectator is aware that they are witnessing the lived experiences of their neighbours in a way that they have not seen them before.
