Legal facades

This article draws on the writings of Slavoj Žižek to argue that legal architecture is a source of ideological beliefs. Žižek asserts that it is through the materialisation of ideology that people often first encounter ideological beliefs, and through exposure to these materialisations ideological beliefs are formed over time. Instead of our acts reflecting our beliefs it is our beliefs that are born out of our acts and belief is merely the formal act of recognising what we already believe. Due to its scale and silence legal architecture is a particularly prominent though largely unnoticed site for the materialisation of legal ideology. The article explores the ideological dimensions of two popular styles of legal architecture – neoclassicism and postmodernism. It argues that neoclassical legal architecture can materialise belief in the eternality, universality, and unchallengeable authority of historic and hierarchical legal relations and norms, and theorises that postmodernist legal architecture likely materialises an equally problematic cynical indifference towards social stratification while projecting an intimate relationship between multinational corporations and the practice of law.