Read more
Within the field of legal geography, the spatial relationship of law to landscape is usually considered to be static. In contrast to this static viewpoint,
Law and the Kinetic Environment considers how many landscapes are in flux and as a result, may be seen as dynamic. Natural phenomena, such as oozing lava, moving glaciers, or bubbling geothermal pools, challenge and test the normative conceptualizations of stability of place, property ownership, and legal regulation. Consequently, such dynamic landscapes enliven and transform law; offering new jurisprudential insights into what law is and how it operates in response to the kineticism that, this book argues is, to some degree, inherent in all landscapes.
List of contents
1. The Fluidity of Law in the Dynamic Landscape
2. Ebbs and Flows of Terrain
3. Kinetic Epistemologies of Law and Nature
4. Evolving Borderlands: Mapping Regulation and Change
5. Place as Evolving Spectacle: Performativity of Legal Geography
6. Conclusion
About the author
Sarah Marusek is Associate Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department at the University of Hawai'i Hilo
Summary
This book addresses the legal-geographical implications of the fact that landscapes are not static, but dynamic. Within the field of legal geography, the spatial relationship of law to landscape is usually considered to be static. Environments are often considered fixed, and consequently inert, as places that literally don’t go anywhere. Typically, then, it is what happens in these places, rather than the place itself, that commands academic attention. In contrast to this static viewpoint, Law and the Kinetic Environment considers how many landscapes are in flux and, as a result, may be seen as dynamic. Natural phenomena, such as oozing lava, moving glaciers, or bubbling geothermal pools, challenge and test the normative conceptualizations of stability of place, property ownership, and legal regulation. Consequently, such dynamic landscapes enliven and transform law, offering new jurisprudential insights into what law is and how it operates in response to the kineticism that, this book argues is, to some degree, inherent in all landscapes. This original engagement with legal geography will appeal to those with general interests in this area, as well as specific concerns with questions of law and place, property and the environment.
