The Expanding Spaces of Law: a timely legal geography, edited by Irus Braverman, Nicholas Blomley, David Delaney, and Alexandre Kedar, is the latest contribution to the relatively small body of literature in the legal geography field. Existing at the intersection between law and geography, legal geography interrogates the interconnections between law and the spaces it occupies. Legal geography explores how law defines space, looking at the ways in which the law tangibly impacts the everyday use of a particular place or geographical space. In the process of so acting, legal geographers argue that law is not an inert set of rules, but instead is active in formulating the rules and processes by which society understands and navigates actual places. Those familiar with legal geography will recognize the editors for their seminal contributions toward establishing the legal geography field. In past work, the editors’ individual research has been diverse touching on a breadth of topics,—such as works on territoriality, the city, post colonialism, zoo regulation, homelessness, property, and racism and the law—all entailing an element of critical legal perspective. In this latest work, The Expanding Spaces of Law contains an introduction and 10 stand-alone chapters. The introduction provides a substantive overview of the development of legal geography scholarship, outlining its key contributions, and a succinct summary of its aims and foundations. The diverse subjects contained in the chapters make the volume dynamic, and of interest for those working in critical perspectives of law in addition to those already working in the legal geography field.
Seemingly disparate, the volume contributions approach their subject matter with the benefit of the clearest articulation of the aims of legal geography seen in the literature to date. Thus, although the 10 chapters in the volume are insightful and diverse, the most significant section in The Expanding Spaces of Law is the introduction where the editors provide a comprehensive overview of the body of work that constitutes “legal geography.” In the introduction, the editors explain the intimate connection between law and geography, focusing on the role of space: “Legal geographers contend that in the world of lived social relations and experience, aspects of the social that are analytically identified as either legal or spatial are conjoined and co-constituted” (p. 1). In turn, “distinctly legal forms of meaning are projected onto every segment of the physical world” (p. 1). Understanding, elaborating on, and critiquing the nature and impacts of this symbiosis relationship between space and the legal informs legal geography literature.
The editors chart the trajectory of legal geography from being, initially, a study of law and geography, whereby the fields borrowed from one another, but without any direct engagement with each other; to then become an interdisciplinary pursuit with a joint research agenda (p. 9). The editors argue that currently a third wave of legal geography research takes a transdisciplinary approach, whereby disciplines other than law or geography are seeking to further understanding of (legal) space to include social and humanities studies (p. 10). The editors identify the ongoing challenge in legal geography scholarship of bridging the gap between legal studies and geography, through a common theoretical understanding. They urge deeper analysis and even more research in different subject-areas to overcome this false divide, and to realize the potential of legal geography scholarship.
In the remainder of the text, the contributing authors more than meet the call for broader scope of disciplinary approaches and subject matter by carrying out detailed case study analysis of diverse geographies. In particular, the chapters address two areas highlighted by the editors who urge that legal geography be developed further under two loose category headings. These are concepts of “power and time” (p. 13) and concepts of “law and space” (p. 15).
There are multiple chapters that look closely at “law and space” and they traverse, again, diverse subject matter. There is a chapter on comparative law where Alexandre Kedar makes an argument for a critical comparative geography approach to be adopted broadly in comparative literature, highlighting in particular the importance of moving beyond case studies that focus on the urban Global Northwest. There is also a chapter on the legal geography of rurality in the United States (with a focus on what the author terms frontier justice) by Lisa R. Pruitt; to be contrasted with the analysis of governmentality in the urban landscape in Mexico City (which has resulted in a deeply insecure labour context, among other things) by Antonio Azuela and Rodrigo Meneses-Reyes. There is a chapter chapter on habits, beliefs, and practices as elements of the action of an everyday and spatial approach to boundaries, as seen for example in property law by Nicholas Blomley, a chapter on spatialities of litigation in the area of judicial review by Melinda Harm Benson; and finally a contribution which looks at emotional labor and the workplace by David Delaney.
As identified by the editors of The Expanding Spaces of Law the topic of “power and time” is a very under-explored area in legal geography scholarship. There are two chapters which begin to tackle time and space. There is a rich chapter by Mariana Valverde in which the author carries out a spatiotemporal analysis of legal geography, successfully highlighting the fallacy in reiterating that space and time are (hierarchically) separated. As well there is a contribution by the late Franz von Benda-Beckmann and Keebet von Benda-Beckmann which looks at temporalities in plural legal orders. Two chapters focus specifically on power as an integral element of spatial realities. Melinda Harm Bensen writes about the process of judicial review as a creator of legal space, as well as an inhibitor of access to it. Finally, Michael D. Smith looks at martial law as it regulates trans-internationally and carries out incursions into domestic borders, introducing the term “geolegalities” to interrogate spatiality and traditional notions of territoriality.
For the depth and diversity of subject matter throughout the volume, as well as the excellent summary review of the state of affairs in legal geography, the text highlights areas that require further research. Most notably, the editors identify a deep bifurcation between law and spatiality. Although false, the bifurcation persists in the literature so undermining the interaction, co-dependency, and co-created reality between these research areas. Having recognized this, however, there is no singular theoretical framework offered for overcoming this false divide. This is clearly an area for further research and it is thought that the deeper exploration of space as urged by the editors will elucidate on this further. Presumably this would be done through the creation of a legal geography method. Which leads to the second question the volume raises—how might a legal-geography method look? As we move through the volume the details of how a legal geography method might look remain un-specified. Irus Braverman begins to answer this question in her chapter titled, “Who's Afraid of Methodology?” Braverman asks that legal geographers undertake an inward reflection to look at how legal geography does what it does. For Braverman, the method of choice is ethnography, which she uses to produce a fascinating chapter. Adopting Braverman's focus on self-reflexivity and method, it seems that we may be closer to seeing how a legal geography methodology might look.
The Expanding Spaces of Law is an important contribution to the field of legal geography and it will certainly be a key text for legal geography scholarship. The editors have detailed the growth of the scholarship, strengthened the aims, and highlighted areas for further research. The result is a call for continued research in this area, including from those who do not identify as legal geography scholars. The contributing authors have fulfilled, and surpassed the volume editors’ call for opening up new pathways in the field. Of particular interest is the variety of case study and subject areas that have been analyzed. The result is a strong list of emerging areas of interest, which are inspiring and certain to capture the attention of scholars who will push the legal geography research agenda forward in multiple ways. The Expanding Spaces of Law is an exciting and timely addition to the field of legal geography.
