Community Economic Development Is Access to Justice

Abstract

What gaps exist in the justice system that result in a need for services provided by community economic development attorneys? What is the evidence that those gaps actually exist? How do we know that community economic development practitioners fill those gaps, and in what way? These are merely a few of the questions addressed in this collection.

At the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) annual meeting in San Diego in January 2018, legal scholars gathered to discuss this evolution as part of the discussion group, “Community Economic Development Is Access to Justice.” The goal of the discussion group was to identify how community economic development (CED) law school courses, experiential and other, increase access to justice and the kind of justice. The participants included clinicians and non-clinicians.

Professors Ted De Barbieri, and CJ Vachon organized the convening and formally invited eleven additional law scholars to participate, along with a number of informal participants from diverse backgrounds in CED. Each formal participant submitted a brief essay describing a community development initiative or strategy, with attention to how it fits within the evolution of the field and to how (and if) law matters in the selected initiative. Nine of the brief essays, along with framing remarks by Professor Scott Cummings and a thematic overview by Professor De Barbieri, have been published in 27 Journal of Affordable Housing and Community Development Law 463 (2019).

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Keywords: community economic development law, access to justice, access to opportunity