Law, the State, and the Spatial Integration of the United States

G L Clark
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G L Clark: John F Kennedy School of Government, Gund Hall, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass 02138, USA

Environment and Planning A, 1981, vol. 13, issue 10, 1197-1232

Abstract: The rules and standards of law both regulate behavior (individual or group) and provide the context within which behavior occurs. By means of a hermeneutic framework, the spatial integration of the United States economy is interpreted in terms of the structure and application of laws adjudicated by the Supreme Court. Emphasis is placed, in particular, upon the substantive aspects of law which have provided the conditions for national economic growth. It is argued that spatial integration can be derived as an outcome from earlier debates between competing classes of the revolutionary era and from an agreement between these classes that the basic unit of American society would be the individual. However, it is also shown that control of the state by the ruling class also enabled the implementation of a policy of spatial integration as part of an overall agenda of national economic development. Evidence in support of this interpretation is drawn from Supreme Court decisions relating, for example, to the Commerce Clause and relative legal autonomy of the local state.

Date: 1981
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:13:y:1981:i:10:p:1197-1232

DOI: 10.1068/a131197

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