The Landscape of ‘Customary’ Law versus that of ‘Natural’ Law

Abstract

Anglo-American common law is rooted in time-out-of-mind, place-specific, custom. It coexists uneasily, however, with the ‘Natural’ law ideal of the Enlightenment, which is inspired by the timeless and placeless mathematical and geometrical principles that govern natural science, and which are characteristic of Newton's absolute space. Each notion of law, it is argued, creates its own conception of landscape, and this conception, in turn, shapes the political and material landscape. These differences are illustrated through a comparison of the landscapes of New England and Mid-Western America.