Landscape, law and justice – concepts and issues

Abstract

This essay presents some of the highlights of the discussions of the Landscape, Law & Justice Research Group at the Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, Oslo, during the academic year 2002–2003. Based on a series of seminars, workshops and conferences, and resultant literature, the essay summarizes the deliberations of the group on matters concerning landscape, custom and law, justice and just environments, language and landscape, old and new commons, and natural and cultural heritage. Unifying themes are historical concepts of landscape, continuity and change in the landscape, and legal implications and landscape impacts of environmental policies. Law, including customary law, is significant for the shaping of landscape; the earliest meaning of the term ‘landscape’ is linked to the role of legal institutions. Law and landscape are in turn both shaped by conceptions of justice, as well as by contestations over what is considered just and unjust in different societies.

Keywords:

• commons
• custom
• heritage
• justice
• landscape
• law

Acknowledgments

Thanks are due to the Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, Oslo, for financial and administrative support for the work of the research group on Landscape, Law & Justice during the academic year 2002–2003, for financial support for the publication of the proceedings of the Guovdageaidnu–Kautokeino symposium and the international conference in Oslo, and for financial support for this special issue of Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift–Norwegian Journal of Geography. Additional thanks are due to the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and to the Research Council of Norway for their sponsorship of the concluding international conference in Oslo.

Notes

1. The members of the core group were Michael Jones (leader), Erling Berge, Ari Lehtinen, David Lowenthal, Kenneth Olwig, Tiina Peil, David Sellar, Gunhild Setten, Hans Sevatdal, and Mats Widgren. Visiting researchers were Gabriel Bladh, Katrina Myrvang Brown, John Gerrard, Margaret Mackay, Karen Fog Olwig, Wilhelm Östberg, Helen Sooväli, and Maud Wedin. Invited speakers at the various monthly seminars, workshops and symposia were Svanhild Andersen, Per Ariansen, Sven Arntzen, Morten Bing, Inger Birkeland, Bjørn Bjerkli, Liv Hilde Boe, Stefan Brink, Kirsti Strøm Bull, Lars Carlsson, Mary Edwards, Sebastian Eiter, Nuria Oses Eraso, Tomas Germundsson, Frode Gundersen, Kaisa Rautio Helander, Peter Howard, Andrew Humphries, Ulf Jansson, Jørgen Klein, Werner Krauss, Marc Laenan, Anders Lundberg, Peeter Maandi, Don Mitchell, Dag Myklebost, Jens-Ivar Nergård, Ingrid Nyborg, Venke Åsheim Olsen, Gunilla Almered Olsson, Per Otnes, Anthony Pace, Nils Johan Päiviö, Mercedes Pardo, Kerstin Potthoff, Siren Sælemyr, Audun Sandberg, Klas Sandell, Per Kristian Skulberg, Bosse Sundin, Arne Torp, and Doreen Waugh. Keynote speakers at the international conference in Oslo were Nicholas Blomley and Anne Whiston Spirn. In addition to names already mentioned, a further 22 persons presented papers at this international conference. Attached to the group as conference secretary was Kari Stuberg. All these, as well as other participants in the discussions at the monthly meetings, contributed to the fertile exchange of ideas that occurred during the year in Oslo.

2. Earlier versions of this summary have been presented at the 21st session of the Permanent European Conference for the Study of the Rural Landscape (PECSRL), Limnos and Lesvos, Greece, 15–21 September 2004, at the conference ‘From knowledge of landscapes to landscaping action’ arranged by Cemagref at Bordeaux, France, 2–4 December 2004, and at The Inaugural Nordic Geographers Meeting at Lund, Sweden, 10–14 May 2005.

3. A full list of the papers presented at the meetings arranged under the auspices of the Landscape, Law & Justice Research Group and a list of publications are found in Jones (2003c). Besides the present special issue, five conference proceedings and special issues of journals have been published as a result of the group's activities (Berge & Carlsson 2003, Jones & Schanche 2004, Olwig 2005a, Olwig [& Lowenthal] 2005, Peil & Jones 2005).