Person:

Frug, Gerald

This article argues that we misinterpret the Census figures showing the continued growth of the suburbs and increase in populations of some cities and not others. While many, including a Harvard economist, contend that this is a purely a result of consumer preference, this article concludes that this pattern is more likely a result of legal rules promoting sprawl which have been unchanged for 50 years. The article states that this new census data should be a wake-up call for state law reform which will no longer constrain and define local government.

This essay focuses on one aspect of the relationship between law and space: the idea that cities be governed by the rule of law. The core value of the rule of law, it is suggested, is the need to restrain the exercise of arbitrary power-to protect the weak from the strong. Two different kinds of neighborhoods are analyzed to expose the current difficulties in establishing the rule of law in this sense: neighborhoods dominated by informal housing, and neighborhoods dominated by economic development aimed at the goal of becoming a global city. To address the current difficulties facing the establishment of the rule of law in these neighborhoods, the essay proposes institutional reforms designed to enable a reinvigorated local democracy that strengthens the current legal system.