In Rural Legal Markets, Elizabeth Chambliss (University of South Carolina School of Law) explores the realities of the current legal market of private practice in rural South Carolina. Using a mixed-methods study of private practitioners, Chambliss examines the economic and professional structures that shape rural legal markets, identifies the ingredients of sustainable rural practice, and discusses incentives for rural practitioners to engage in pro bono and low-bono services.

In A Tale of Two Landlords, Christopher J. Ryan Jr. (Maurer School of Law) explores the use of legal eviction from the landlord’s perspective, focusing on how costs impact landlords’ behaviors in the formal legal process of eviction. Drawing on over 200,000 eviction cases in Kentucky, the study explores the “economy of eviction,” and finds clear differences between landlords based on their location (rural or urban) and scale of their operations (small or large) when attempting to recoup lost rent or go through the eviction process.

In Forgotten are the Locals: Structures of Common Differences and the Inauthentic Curation of Western Boom Town Main Streetscapes, author Matthew M. Mars (Public and Applied Humanities, University of Arizona) examines four rural Arizona “main street” streetscapes to better understand these structures function as inauthentic representations of everyday rural life.

In Protecting Access to Nursing Home Care for Family Farmers, Natalie Temple (Gonzaga Law School) explores the challenges faced by American farmers facing retirement age and the need for care in nursing home facilities. Due to the “land rich, cash poor” nature of most farmers, elderly care poses a choice for most farmers between selling off farmland or going without care.

In Rural Residency, Rural Resentment, and Attitudes Towards Public Land Management in the United States, authors B. Kal Munis and Zoe Nemerever (both Political Science, Auburn) explore attitudes regarding federal public land management along the urban-rural divide. The authors find that while both rural and non-rural Americans are broadly supportive of federal public lands, a subset of “resentful ruralities” are markedly unsupportive of public lands due to their opposition to the federal government.

In Justice on the Backroads: The TBA YLD’s Answer to the Rural Attorney Shortage, Hon. Zachary R. Walden (Criminal Court judge for Tennessee’s 8th Judicial District) and Alix Rogers (Belmont University College of Law) explore the impact of the Tennessee Bar Association Young Lawyer Division’s Rural Judicial Fellowship (RJF) on law students from schools across the state. Built in response to Tennessee’s growing “legal deserts”—areas in which the availability of legal services is diminishing—the RJF program places law students in clerkships with rural judges during the summer to introduce them to career opportunities in rural areas. 

In Collaborative Management on the Eastern Slopes: The Waldron Ranch Grazing Cooperative and Conservation Easement Motivations, Forrest Hisey (Geography, Geomatics, and Environment, University of Toronto Mississauga) and Jonah Olsen (Geography and Planning, University of Toronto) investigate the use of conservation easements (CEs) in Canada as a tool for private land conservation. The authors explore the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for such easements, including deeply rooted cultural identities among landowners and traditional economic benefits.

In Understanding Rural Legal Deserts to Inform Public Policy: Identifying and Describing Lawyer Gaps in Non-Metropolitan Counties, David J. Peters, Emma Bartling, and Emily Meyer (all Agricultural and Rural Policy, Iowa State University) analyze the current trends of lawyer shortages in rural “legal deserts,” areas lacking sufficient legal services, across the United States. In doing so, the authors put forth an alternative calculation and classification of legal deserts that differs from that of the American Bar Association.

In The Healing Power of Antitrust, Theodosia Stavroulaki (Saint Louis University School of Law) analyzes the effects of noncompete and merger agreements between rural hospitals, which lead to “hospital deserts,” areas where geographic access to hospitals and primary care physicians is lacking. These areas leave millions of Americans without necessary medical care, further exacerbating health and racial disparities that leave rural populations particularly vulnerable.

In The Geography of Property Rights: Land Concentration, Irrigation Access and Rural Poverty Under Climate Change in Chile, Eduardo Villavicencio-Pinto (Law, University of Kent, England) examines the relationship between land concentration and rural poverty in Chile. The article argues that land concentration increases the likelihood of poverty primarily in communities with limited water access.  

In Feed it to the Ocean: The Federal Approach to Decommissioning in Alaska Native Climate Adaptation Project, Sophia Tidler (University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Law) highlights the importance of decommissioning existing infrastructure when planning relocation, managed retreat, and protect-in-place (RMP) projects for environmentally threatened Native communities in rural Alaska.

In Catching Nutrients in a Net: Collective Action, Institutional Impediments, and the Mississippi River Watershed, Jonathan Rosenbloom (Albany Law School) investigates the role of local governments in the regulation of pollution in the Mississippi River Watershed. In his analysis, Rosenbloom goes beyond the traditional “tragedy of the commons” explanation for local government action and instead looks to the dynamics of federal and state regulations that preempt local governments.