Davidson & Romero: Law in Rural and Urban Places

In Law in Place: Reflections on Rural and Urban Legal Paradigms, Nestor M. Davidson (Urban Law Center, Fordham) and Alan R. Romero (Rural Law Center, University of Wyoming) reflect on the ways in which rural and urban settings shape the law and its application. The authors draw from their own experiences, approaching legal research as scholars and directors of their respective urban and rural law centers.

To begin, Davidson and Romero situate rural and urban paradigms on a spectrum, arguing that rural and urban are not always strict opposites but instead contain overlapping areas of concern, even if expressed through differing characteristics. The authors also acknowledge that broad categories and stereotypes are often used to describe rural and urban to negative effect but maintain that, in this case, generalizations can serve as a helpful starting point for understanding place and context in the legal system.

The article then considers how place and context affect the legal system. For example, rural places often have fewer attorneys, leading to rural populations having less personal interaction with the legal process when addressing disputes. Further, rural places often experience fewer violent and property crimes. This leads to policies and regulations that may focus on informal dispute resolutions over policies concerning crime.

These differences in place and context lead to different substantive legal rules. For example, the application of the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures extends to the curtilage of the house, which is the area typically associated with the “sanctity of a man’s home and the privacies of life.” Courts have observed that the curtilage of rural homes may extend farther than that of urban or suburban homes.

Recognizing the value of exploring these types of differences in legal application, the authors encourage more consideration of the relevance of place to legal issues and increased interaction between rural and urban legal scholars. Rural and urban paradigms reveal patterns and contexts that may highlight new legal issues, point to potential solutions, and, the authors claim, can contribute to a better understanding of rurality and urbanism.