Cristy Clark and John Page, The Lawful Forest: A Critical History of Property, Protest and Spatial Justice

Abstract

First paragraph: The Lawful Forest: A Critical History of Property, Protest and Spatial Justice is a welcome addition to the growing literature on legal geography and a compelling read for anyone interested in issues of land, justice and environment. Authors Cristy Clark and John Page set forth a critical account of private property through the novel lens of the ‘lawful forest’, vivified through a series of historic (and at times contemporary) stories which highlight alternative, ‘other’ histories of property. These stories highlight that the lawful forest is alive, yet hidden from view. Clark and Page argue that this obscurity is far from innocent: it is the result of centuries of violent dispossession, enclosure, colonisation and commodification, all of which have contributed to global crises such as the climate emergency and widespread biodiversity loss and, crucially, which are all enabled by private property. While historiographical storytelling is the key lens of analysis, The Lawful Forest is, at its core, concerned with law – specifically property law. It stresses that questions of who is entitled to be on land, for what reasons and for how long are fundamentally contingent on property law, which is itself undergirded by the totalising and individual logic of private property. This form of property is fundamentally detached from material life, deeply implicating it in ongoing global socio-environmental crises.