WORKSHOP: New Perspectives in Legal Geography - at NSF - Fall of 2012

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The past decade has witnessed a surge of scientific inquiry on aspects of legal geography, including work by human geographers and legal scholars as well as sociologists, criminologists, and anthropologists, among others. This area of research has historically addressed the spatial and human dynamics surrounding various legal phenomena, including property, racial segregation and discrimination, policing practices, prison settings, and various other relevant aspects of society (urban, home, borders, etc.). The proposed workshop will advance the study of legal geography by exploring several new perspectives on spatiality. The present focus engages contemporary spatial theory to expand conceptions of space to include the domains of meaning, representation, discourse, and ideology. In this context, the proposed workshop will encourage collaboration in new areas of socio-legal inquiry, including environmental, civil rights, immigration, international, punishment, intellectual property, and labor laws. The workshop will bring together social and spatial scientists, and legal scholars, to discuss these new perspectives and to explore diverse methodological approaches to addressing such issues. The intellectual merit of this workshop proposal rests on its ability to engage an emerging field of interdisciplinary social science and the law, and to encourage further social and spatial science theory that might enhance our understanding of the development and implementation of law. The workshop will promote the inclusion of junior scholars in this area, and has great potential for improving the training and practice of law.