Pim van Tol

The people’s tribunal (volksvierschaar) is a new typology for a court of law where the focus is on observing the administration of justice, just like one could observe this in the open in the past.

A vierschaar (the historical term for a Dutch tribunal, which literally means ‘foursquare’) is the name for the court of law in the early Middle Ages, where they demarcated a room by means of four sticks in the ground and stretched a rope between them. At the four edges, there were benches [squares] upon which the sheriffs [judges] took their seats, and the accused stood in the middle. Justice was administered within these four squares.

The term transparency is an important theme within the modern judicial system and has been considered a structural principle of the judicial system for centuries. Public access compensates for the lack of democratic control. It gives citizens the opportunity to form an opinion about what the judge does and to criticise it. It can be seen as contradictory that a large section of modern society is no longer aware of the fact that the judicial system is, in principle, freely accessible to everyone and the court of law thus forms a public building.

The task itself lies between two contrasts, namely the public and transparent character on the one hand, and the complexity of different routes and the security on the other hand. The people’s tribunal emerged in this area of tension, a central courtroom with a number of routes of public and secure zones orbiting around it. These different transparent zones operate as filter, thus reflecting the various layers of the court.

At a time in which the public nature of the court is under pressure, the people’s tribunal reacts to this with a transparent building which addresses the public nature of the judicial system. The theme of transparency in the administration of justice is a topical theme within the judicial system. For example, Geert Corsten [President of the Supreme Court] advocated the importance of public access in the judicial system in the magazine of the Council for the Judiciary [September 2014 #03].

“The image of the judicial system is of it being withdrawn, unaccessible, old-fashioned, maybe even unworldly.”

This was said by the former Minister of Security and Justice [Ivo Willem Opstelten] during his introduction to the presidents of the courts in October 2012. And he subsequently said:

“We all know that the reality is different, but we do need to do something to change that image.”

Commission: Machiel Spaan (mentor), Jana Crepon, Daan Petri. Additional members for the exam: Rik van Dolderen, Jeroen van Mechelen.