Exploring a critical legal cartography: Law, practice, and complexities

Abstract

The word cartography literally means “to write the earth.” Just as there are many ways to write a story, there are many ways to depict the world, or some part of the world, in a map. In this article, we consider the possibility of a critical legal cartography. Towards this end, we explore the main arguments for and against “mapping law” from legal scholars, human geographers, and legal anthropologists. Questions like “what does it mean to map law?” and “can we map law?” are surprisingly complex and lead to other important questions about the relationships among law, space, and cartography. We look at the multiple strands of research and fields that touch on various aspects of law and how we understand the spatio‐legal world around us. We examine the relationship between cartography and criminology through the development of the field of crime mapping and the influence of cartographic innovations throughout history on our own understanding of the spatiality of the legal world around us. Finally, we turn to recent work in the area of critical cartography, critical geopolitical cartography, and recent innovations in the field of cartography itself to set the stage for our own call towards developing a critical legal cartography.

In defence of the hearing? Emerging geographies of publicness, materiality, access and communication in court hearings

“…As a traditional area of focus for geographers, how can the discipline use its cartographic skills to address the practical questions raised by recent developments most effectively (Reiz, O'Lear, & Tuininga, 2018)? And how can legal scholars ensure that access to justice, in its conceptualisation and implementation, is as holistic as possible?…”

Online activism and street harassment

“…Indeed, in many respects the work presented here forms a response to Kindynis' call for criminologists to engage critically with cartographical practices -particularly those afforded by digital technologies, or "web 2.0 cartographies" (Bittner et al 2013, p. 938; see also Bittner 2016, Reiz et al 2017 -and to interrogate their potential "as a vehicle for social and political intervention" (Kindynis 2014, p. 222). This may be achieved through the practice of "counter-mapping".…”

“…It is similarly important to question which forms of harassment are represented through these practices. As Heiden (2018, p. 66) suggests, "what a map does not show is often as important and powerful as what it does show", and it is for this reason we must remain attuned to the omissions and silences contained in counter-mapping practices (see also Parker 2006, Kim 2015, Reiz et al 2017. For instance, certain forms of harassment may be easier to capture or represent in the chalk-writings of @catcallsofnyc, which tend to centre on more "tangible" instances of harassment (verbal comments).…”

Geographies of slow violence: an introduction

“…14-15). How the spaces and jurisdictions defined by law are mapped and thereby communicated and stabilized are unsettled questions of critical legal cartography (Reiz et al 2018).…”