Law Commons^™

Law And Aesthetics: A Critique And A Reformulation Of The Dilemmas, John J. Costonis

Michigan Law Review

This Article both examines these consequences and explains why they have departed so frequently from the ostensible goals of the policies that produced them. It also surveys the principal legal dilemmas that attend aesthetic policy-making, which is sensitive to the values actually at stake in the type of "aesthetic" controversies that legal institutions are called upon to resolve in American society. The aesthetic controls addressed are those adopted in such areas as zoning, historic or environmental preservation, and urban design to shape the visual appearance of the built and natural environments. The content of the aesthetics idea is explored through …