‘Geographers have long been concerned with questions of social justice. In recent years there has been a particular emphasis on the processes through which certain social groups such as women, ethnic minorities, children, lesbians and gay men and disabled people are excluded from, or marginalized within, everyday spaces Research on these topics inevitably has led to questions about how academics can address these issues in ways that are sensitive to, and empower those participating in, such studies and consequently to debates about professional ethics’ (Valentine (2003) PHG 27; see also D. Sibley 1995).

Geographical investigations of equity, fairness, and justice have centred on spatial equality, territorial justice, and minimum standards (Hay (1995) TIBG 20, 4): ‘what is just at one geographical scale for one set of workers might be unjust for other workers elsewhere.’ While aeronautical engineers working in Seattle might feel they are justly treated by Boeing, Mexican workers stitching seat-covers for Boeing aircraft may not enjoy equal pay and conditions. However, ‘the logic of capital is…not about…social equity, human happiness, or environmental justice’ (N. Castree et al. 2004).

Raustiala (2005) Fordham Law Review rejects the US Federal Court’s notion that ‘American law is tethered to territory—that simply by moving an individual around in space, the rights that individual enjoys wax and wane…spatial location ought not woodenly foreclose the existence of constitutional rights for noncitizens subject to American power outside the boundaries of the United States’. Osofsky (2008) Villanova Law School 53 explores ‘ “wormholes” in the US legal system that transport people…into another timespace in which basic protections are absent’. He is referring to rendition flights. Of equal interest is Jeffrey’s paper (2011) TIBG 36, 3, 344 on the Dayton Peace Accords over Bosnia and Herzegovina, where legal processes of justice—in the USA—remained remote from the locations where the crimes took place, and whereby spaces of ‘transitional’ justice were marginalized.

The Brundtland Report establishes the pursuit of intra- and intergenerational equity as key dimensions of future progress towards sustainability. ‘If the ability to live in an environment which meets reasonable standards of quality and tolerable levels of environmental risk is included as a basic need…pursuing environmental justice is…central to the broader framing of sustainable development’ (Walker and Bulkeley (2006) Geoforum 37, 5). See A. Dobson, ed. (1999) on sustainable development and intergenerational justice.