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Legal Consciousness as Viewed through the Judicial Iconography of the Madras High Court

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2018

Rahela KHORAKIWALA
Rahela KHORAKIWALA*
Affiliation:
Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
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Abstract

The Madras High Court located in Chennai, India, was established in 1862 when India was under colonial rule. It continues to exist in post-independence India after merging into the Indian legal system. In this study, I argue that the architecture and judicial iconography of the Madras High Court building reflects a recurring historical tension between Indian and British concepts of justice. This is continually reflected in the semiotics of the legal space of this high court which in turn influences the legal consciousness of the court personnel who utilize this space. This architecture and iconography of the Madras High Court constitutes, preserves, and reinforces the ambivalent legal consciousness of those who created, occupy, and visit this space. The contemporary legal consciousness of the court personnel is thus seen to have deep historical roots.

Keywords

Indiajudicial iconographylegal consciousnessarchitecturecolonialismimagery
Type
Legal Consciousness in Asia
Information
Asian Journal of Law and Society , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , May 2018 , pp. 111 - 133
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press and KoGuan Law School, Shanghai Jiao Tong University 2018 

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Footnotes

*

Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. E-mail address: [email protected]. I am grateful to Prof. David Engel and Dr Lynette Chua for their in-depth comments and guidance at every stage of writing this paper, and for their positive encouragement towards my work and Dr Pratiksha Baxi for her insights and comments. I would like to thank the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, for supporting this research and the Centre for Asian Legal Studies, National University of Singapore, for partial funding to attend and obtain feedback from the Asian Law and Society Association’s 2016 annual conference in Singapore.

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