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Abstract In his work on human-centric design, urban theorist Christopher Alexander elaborated design patterns as a way to conceptualise and practice urban design together with its users. Alexander aspired to design “living places”, physical spaces created by the social interactions that take place there. In this article, I use this lens to uncover the “living places” of law, and what might be the “living law” that legal design patterns could capture? I explore law as a product of design, and design as an activity, an activity that produces the many material manifestations of law. These manifestations may be digital or analog, such as case files on paper or interactive online forms, courthouse architecture or institutional webpages, courtroom furniture or dispute resolution platforms. Although often overlooked in legal scholarship, such material manifestations shape legal interaction, privileging certain forms and actors over others. They reflect values and ideologies as well as legal concepts and doctrines. By thinking about law through legal design patterns , living law becomes defined through interaction. I explore this connection between spatial and material arrangements and legal interaction they manifest and enable. This analysis makes it possible to compare law’s old material manifestations with its new places and things that rely on digital technologies. This shift of focus to legal interaction enables us to ask what legal interaction is, how it should be designed, and by whom, reconceptualising the dynamics of law, technology, and design. Ultimately, legal design patterns may provide us with conceptual and methodological tools for designing user-centric justice.
Riikka Koulu (Mon,) studied this question.