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University at Buffalo School of Law

Law and Geography

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Uprooting Identities: The Regulation Of Olive Trees In The Occupied West Bank, Irus Braverman Nov 2009

Uprooting Identities: The Regulation Of Olive Trees In The Occupied West Bank, Irus Braverman

Journal Articles

The Israeli/Palestinian conflict has rarely been associated with trees in the common perception. This article reveals the complex historical and cultural processes that have led to strong identification between the olive tree and the Palestinian people, arguing that this identification is not only a reflection of the olive’s unique economic and cultural status in this region but also an act of resistance to Israel’s occupation. The article also explains how Israel’s tightening of surveillance, practiced in the name of olive protection, actually ends up forcing an alien set of spatial and temporal regimes on the everyday life of Palestinians in …


Loo Law: The Public Washroom As A Hyper-Regulated Space, Irus Braverman Jan 2009

Loo Law: The Public Washroom As A Hyper-Regulated Space, Irus Braverman

Journal Articles

The article suggests that the public washroom is the most regulated of all public spaces, at least in the United States. It offers several possible explanations for this hyper-juridical attention. First and foremost, the article argues, such hyper-regulation of the public washroom has to do with the sanitary and moral significance of this space. Secondly, the intensity of washroom regulation is due to its ambiguous public/private properties. Finally, the intense regulation of the public washroom is the result of physio-anatomical functions performed in it. Utilizing the State of New York as a lens through which to observe the various issues …


Governing Certain Things: The Regulation Of Street Trees In Four North American Cities, Irus Braverman Jan 2008

Governing Certain Things: The Regulation Of Street Trees In Four North American Cities, Irus Braverman

Journal Articles

Most sociolegal studies of the urban street focus on the human element. By focusing on the tree, my Article offers a unique perspective on the interrelations between various actors within the public spaces of modern North American cities. Situated at the intersection of legal geography, anthropology, and Science and Technology Studies, this Article demonstrates how natural artifacts function as technologies of governance, thereby masking crucial political interventions behind a natural facade. The tensions between nature and the city, as embedded in both the construction and the regulation of street trees, provide an unusual perspective on the management of urban populations …