Private Country? Hunting, Land and Judicial Interventions

Much has been written about the public/private divide within political and legal theory, particularly by feminist scholars (O’Donovan 1985; Pateman 1989; Lacey 1993; Thornton 1995). For the courts, the dichotomy has proven a key organising framework. It shapes the character and content of judicial interventions and is reproduced, at least, ideologically in many of their practices (Blomley and Bakan 1992; Gray 1994). One area where the divide has received little academic attention is in relation to hunting law. Yet, hunting cases over the past 120 years have invoked the public/private divide in a range of forms, from property rights and the law on trespassing to revenue, local government ownership and employment practice.