Making nature/markling humans: Law as a site of (cultural) production

This article engages both the "construction of nature" thesis and the proje ct of legal geography to examine law as a culturally significant site where in "nature" is produced. Because the meaning of "nature" is often a functio n of its contrasts with the category "human," to participate in the constru ction of one is, almost by definition, to participate in the construction o f the other. After discussing law as a site of cultural production in gener al terms, this article surveys a range of legal contexts in which the natur e/human distinction is a central conceptual-political concern. These contex ts include nature as externality (wilderness), animality (bestiality), and corporeality (reproductive technologies and the involuntary medication of i nmates). The article's conclusion addresses the pragmatics of constructivis m within the context of existing humanist-liberal legal frames of reference .