The Expanding Spaces of Law: A Timely Legal Geography. By Irus Braverman, Nicholas Blomley, David Delaney, and Alexandre Kedar. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2014. 296 pp. $27.95 paper.

Abstract

The Expanding Spaces of Law: A Timely Geography. By Irus Braverman, Nicholas Blomley, David Delaney, and Alexandre Kedar. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2014. 296 pp. $27.95 paper.The Expanding Spaces of Law: a timely 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 geography field. Existing at the intersection between law and geography, geography interrogates the interconnections between law and the spaces it occupies. 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, 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 geography will recognize the editors for their seminal contributions toward establishing the 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 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 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 geography field.Seemingly disparate, the volume contributions approach their subject matter with the benefit of the clearest articulation of the aims of 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 of lived social relations and experience, aspects of the social that are analytically identified as either or spatial are conjoined and co-constituted (p. 1). In turn, distinctly 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 informs geography literature.The editors chart the trajectory of 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 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 geography scholarship of bridging the gap between 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 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. …