The Sears Island Saga: Law in Search of Geography

Rutherford H. Platt and James M. Kendra

Economic Geography, 1998, vol. 74, issue 0, 46-61

Abstract: Although the influence of law in shaping human use of land and water has long been recognized, the role of geographic factors in the resolution of legal disputes involving such resources is less appreciated. When the outcome of litigation or administrative procedures depends upon accurate understanding of geographic context and uncertainties, and such understanding is flawed, the legal process may become a faltering, costly exercise in futility. Such has been the case with the 20-year battle over the fate of Sears Island, a sizable tract of undeveloped coastal Maine at the head of Penobscot Bay. This controversy has reflected competition between economic and environmental goals in coastal zone management, the issue of local versus nonlocal control of resources, and the uneasy interaction of geography and law in the process of environmental impact assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Date: 1998
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/j.1944-8287.1998.tb00030.x (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:recgxx:v:74:y:1998:i:0:p:46-61

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/recg20

DOI: 10.1111/j.1944-8287.1998.tb00030.x

Access Statistics for this article

Economic Geography is currently edited by James Murphy

More articles in Economic Geography from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().