Of place and law

Kanellopoulou, Jenny (2020) Of place and law. In: The Routledge Handbook of Place. Routledge, London, pp. 367-376. ISBN 9781138320499 (hardback); 9780429453267 (ebook)

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Abstract

This chapter attempts an alternative spatial reading of the law from both a doctrinal and an interdisciplinary perspective. More specifically, it aims to establish common ground between traditional legal thinking and geography, when issues pertaining to the treatment of place and space arise. In this vein, the chapter explores the relationship between the territorial construction and application of the law in doctrinal legal thinking, and urges us to consider what role the notions of place and space are called to play in what makes the law (qua law), absent the traditional jurisdiction or the sovereign state. Ultimately, alternative legal vehicles such as Nicholas Blomley’s ‘bracketing’ are being examined as ways to approach spatial considerations in legal practice, without jeopardising legal certainty in the post-Westphalian globalised world.