In 2016, during Geography Awareness Week, Ex Libris Juris featured a brief discussion of GIS mapping technology and its applications for understanding Access to Justice (A2J). In the years since, opportunities for GIS data analysis in the A2J community have only grown. Today, November 20, is GIS Day, the perfect time to highlight additional uses of GIS software for analysis of datasets relevant to law. An assortment of GIS applications for legal contexts are mentioned in the list at bottom, along with two additional short compilations—a sampling of StoryMaps and a beginner’s collection of mapping tools for your own GIS projects.
GIS and Legal Deserts
GIS imaging can be used to inform budget decisions, policy recommendations, and access to justice initiatives in underserved areas. It’s the perfect tool for correlating socioeconomic indicators, demographic information, and legal resource datasets to identify resource diffusion within communities. Geomapping projects can also track inequities in the availability of legal services and the delivery of justice across a region.
In December 2023, the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) used just such an approach to identify legal deserts, which, as the data revealed, are often concentrated in rural, low-income, or marginalized urban neighborhoods. These areas lack legal resources, providing insufficient access to law firms, legal aid organizations, or pro bono services. By using GIS mapping to layer and sort multidisciplinary data, NCSC is helping courts in new ways to create relevant, actionable insights. In future iterations of the project, predictive analytics could be used to forecast the emergence of new legal deserts as populations shift or resources diminish.
GIS data mapping has also been used by local governments to identify ways of improving emergency response efforts after natural disasters. Other projects are aimed at facilitating better access to public records and educating the public about their legal rights and how to assert them.
Challenges, including limited data availability, funding shortages, and privacy concerns, may present barriers to some GIS projects, but the key players in this arena—including technologists, geographers, data analysts, legal practitioners, and A2J advocates—can and already do work together to address these roadblocks. As a team, these stakeholders possess the knowledge and skills to impact the A2J landscape in truly meaningful ways.
GIS and the Law
Property and Land Disputes (Boundary Identification, Zoning, Land Use)
Environmental Law (Impact Assessments, Pollution and Contamination, Climate and Disaster Risk)
Crime and Public Safety (Crime Scene Mapping, Risk Assessment)
Disaster Response and Liability (Emergency Response Mapping, Evacuation Routes, Property Damage)
Civil Rights and Social Justice (Redlining and Housing Discrimination, Voting Rights/Poll Access)
Landlord-Tenant and Housing Law (Building Inspections and Violations, Rent Control and Housing Affordability)
Eminent Domain (Assessment of Fair Compensation, Land Value and Usage Changes)
International Law (Border Disputes, Legal Claims related to Resource Management)
StoryMaps
GIS Mapping Tools
ArcGIS Online (Powered by Esri) — Create a FREE ArcGIS Account Online
MapMaker (National Geographic)
BigQuery (Google - Beta)