Abstract
Resiliency has become a dominant and largely unchallenged organizing principle of contemporary state-local governance in Maine, particularly as it affects rural towns and communities dependent on extractive industries. This Article argues that resiliency planning is not merely a policy orientation, but a distinct form of legal authority, which operates through an administrative structure that is closed off to normal channels of political accountability and judicial review. Focusing on Maine, the Article shows how statewide resiliency planning reallocates authority across state and local institutions, shaping fiscal access and territorial development without triggering the doctrinal safeguards of public law. Rural governance, where administrative capacity is thin and institutional buffering limited, brings these effects into sharpest focus.
First Page
379
Recommended Citation
Nicholas F. Jacobs & Skylar Thielbar,
Resiliency Planning and the Reorganization of Legal Authority in Rural Maine,
78
Me. L. Rev.
379
(2026).
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.mainelaw.maine.edu/mlr/vol78/iss2/7
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