Few people can top the connection Matt Mattice has to his workplace: His great-great- great-grandfather, Alexander Joy Cartwright, was an adviser to King Kalakaua and one of the main speakers at the Feb. 19, 1872, groundbreaking ceremony for Aliiolani Hale (see sidebar).

“It’s amazing to think he was there when the king laid the cornerstone for the building,” said Mattice, executive director of the King Kamehameha V Judiciary History Center in Aliiolani Hale. “He was a savvy businessman and community leader. As one of the founders of the Honolulu Library Reading Room Association, he objected to the exclusion of women from membership. That kind of sets the tone for his involvement with this building’s history — a place where people seek justice.”

Along with the center, Aliiolani Hale houses the Supreme Court of Hawaii, the Office of the Chief Clerk, the administration offices of the state Judiciary and the Supreme Court Law Library. The center interprets more than 200 years of Hawaii’s legal history through exhibits, lectures, films, panel discussions, living-history presentations and other public events and activities.

The seeds for it were sown in 1976, when then-Chief Justice William Richardson formed a citizens committee to come up with recommendations for a renovation of Aliiolani Hale. One of the ideas the committee proposed was a law-related educational facility.

Funding from private donors, the state Legislature and the National Endowment for the Humanities enabled the 4,700-square-foot center to open on the ground floor of Aliiolani Hale on Sept. 12, 1989.

A visit begins with a look at how the ancient kapu system of laws made the transition to a constitutional monarchy. Artifacts include a bamboo jury chair dating from the 1850s and a large model of Hawaii’s first courthouse depicting that era.

“The courthouse was near the intersection of Bethel Street and present-day Ala Moana Boulevard,” Mattice said. “It was used from 1852 until 1874 when it was badly damaged during a riot that followed Kalakaua’s election as sovereign of the kingdom. Aliiolani Hale was near completion, so judicial proceedings, along with the executive and legislative offices, were moved to the new building. A few coral blocks from the original courthouse are displayed near the model.”

According to Mattice, the “heart” of the center is the 1913 courtroom, which is now used for lectures, dramatizations, mock trials and other programs.

“It wasn’t in the building’s original design,” he said. “Part of the space it occupies was the legislative chamber where the House of Nobles and House of Representatives convened until the overthrow of the kingdom in 1893.”

The “Hawaii Under Martial Law” exhibit shows how daily life in the islands drastically changed on Dec. 7, 1941, the day Pearl Harbor was bombed. For the next three years, Hawaii was under the jurisdiction of the military.

More than 250 temporary laws were issued, including gas rationing, job and wage freezes, curfew and blackout periods, and censorship of newspapers, radio broadcasts, mail, photos and phone calls.

“Also, for all practical purposes, the civilian courts were closed,” Mattice said. “Infractions were prosecuted in courts presided over by military personnel. The average length of those trials was 5 minutes, and conviction rates were near 100 percent.”

Plans are being drawn for a $2 million renovation of the center. A fundraising campaign is expected to launch in the spring, with construction set to start in the summer of 2017.

“It’s a challenging task,” Mattice said. “We must include the experiences of individuals and groups whose voices we don’t often hear but are part of our legal history. Inclusion fosters transparency and understanding of the courts. It promotes access to justice, which is the right of every citizen.”

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Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards.

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About Aliiolani Hale

Plans that Australian architect Thomas Rowe had designed for a palace were modified in 1871 for a new government building.

Both Kamehameha V, king at the time, and his successor, Lunalilo, died before Aliiolani Hale was completed. It officially opened April 30, 1874, during Kalakaua’s reign, initially housing the kingdom’s Legislature, Supreme Court, attorney general’s and Oahu governor’s offices, Health and Education departments, a law library and a museum.

In 1893 forces plotting the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy staged a coup at Aliiolani Hale and proclaimed the establishment of a provisional government in an announcement read in the building’s back hall. To avoid bloodshed, Queen Liliuokalani issued a statement yielding to the United States under protest. She thought the U.S. government would investigate and reinstate her authority, which never happened.

The famous 1930s Massie case (bit.ly/1IKtgxP) was tried in one of the four courtrooms in Aliiolani Hale at the time; historians don’t know exactly which one.

A new wing was added to Aliiolani Hale in 1942, and a second story was built in 1949 to complete the structure that stands today. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

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International criminal law forum

In recognition of International Human Rights Day on Thursday, the Judiciary History Center and the Hawaii State Bar Association’s Civic Education Committee will present a free panel discussion on international criminal law from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Aliiolani Hale.

Speakers will be Gregory Jackson, an international adviser on human rights; Cynthia Tai, who worked in the Office of the Prosecutor-International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands; and Omer Ismail, a policy adviser on crisis management and conflict resolution in Africa. RSVP by Tuesday by calling 539-4999 or emailing info@jhchawaii.net.