articles

Protecting a Sacred River: Transnational Appeals for Energy Justice and Indigenous Rights Recognition

By Sarah Kelly

The Pilmaiquén River is named after the swallow. Like the bird, the turquoise river makes a few quick and sporadic turns as it winds its way down from the Andean mountains toward the Pacific Ocean. In southern Chile, the Mapuche-Williche people hold the river as sacred to their culture. On We tripantu, the Mapuche new year which occurs on Austral winter solstice (June), the spirits of those who have died that year are known to travel up to the Wenumapu (the land above) when the river unites with the river of the sky, the Milky Way. Until We tripantu comes each year, these spirits live on animals in the river like birds and fish.


The Latest


conferences

Now Available – Schedule for Graduate Voices in the Lawscape at the AAG in 2023

By Austin Kocher

The final schedule for the Legal Geography Specialty Group’s sessions titled Graduate Voices in the Lawscape at the upcoming AAG conference in Denver is now available. These three curated sessions feature new research from graduate students whose work intersects with law and space, often in critical and innovative ways.

conferences

Carceral Geography Conference Program Now Available

By Austin Kocher

The program for the 5th International Conference for Carceral Geography is now out and registration is open. The 5th International Conference for Carceral Geography, a hybrid conference (in-person and online) in Melbourne, Australia on Tuesday the 13th, Wednesday the 14th and Thursday the 15th of December 2022.

articles

Legal Ecologies of Climate Change: How Farmers are Advancing Environmental Justice in the German Courts

By Sarah Klosterkamp

Should Volkswagen be held partially liable for creating a climate that hurts farmers?

conferences

Call for Papers - Legal Geographies of the Courts at AAG 2023

By Shoukia van Beek

The contemporary moment is a new one for the U.S. Supreme Court. With a conservative balance of judges, the Supreme Court is poised to shift not only decisions made in earlier eras, but the geographies of rights across the United States. While decisions during the 2021-2022 Court changed geographies of abortion access, jurisdiction over Native American reservations, and state control over gun rights, next year’s docket includes voting rights.

conferences

Call for Graduate Papers on Legal Geography at AAG 2023

By Carly Griffith

If you’re a graduate student whose work intersects with questions of law and space, consider submitting a paper for the annual “Graduate Voices in the Lawscape” sessions at the AAG conference sponsored by the Legal Geography Specialty Group. These sessions will be hosted hybrid (in-person & virtual) at the AAG conference in 2023. Submission deadline is October 15, 2022.

articles

The Unnatural Legal Geographies of the Current US ‘Megadrought’

By Alida Cantor

Extreme drought is ravaging much of the Western United States as water reservoirs and snowpack decline to dangerous levels. As panicked water managers seek immediate solutions to the impending crisis, the current “megadrought” also raises an important but often ignored question: what role does law play in creating and exacerbating unequal access to shrinking water resources?

conferences

Join the Next Carceral Geography Conference in December 2022

By Austin Kocher

The 5th International Conference for Carceral Geography will be held in Australia as a two-day hybrid event (in-person and online) hosted by the University of Melbourne, 14-15 December 2022. The conference theme for 2022 is Confinement: spaces and practices of care and control.


Spotlight


conferences

First Annual Critical Legal Geography Conference

By Francesco Chiodelli

Call for Abstracts and Sessions. The first critical legal geography conference brings together transdisciplinary scholars to discuss the mutual constitution of space and law, broadly conceived. The conference in February 2024 (in Turin, Italy) will be the first of a series of annual meetings on critical legal geography.

articles

Subterranean Legal Geographies: Regulating Groundwater in California

By Julia Sizek

It will come as no surprise that cities in Southern California depend on water that originates far away. But a new change to the Colorado River compact, an agreement that divides the Colorado River’s water among the states that border it, threatens a quarter of Southern California’s water supply, driving residents’ source of water—as well as legal battles over access to this water—underground.