Pocket Parks: Legal Strategies and Citizen Engagement to Enhance Cities' Sustainability

The article aims to identify the broad range of sustainable benefits provided to cities by the creation of pocket parks, including health-related, environmental, economic and social aspects. It examines several relevant legal aspects inherent to such parks, by describing the legal characteristics and frameworks of two jurisdictions where these parks thrive, the US and England, in a comparative light. It notes an EU project featuring urban parks, including pocket parks, to further compare similar features and the benefits deriving from them, and offers reflections on common goods. It then analyses pertinent aspects of the Italian legal system, seeking to identify viable means to strengthen the possibility of creating pocket parks there, placing the discussion within the broad context of civic engagement, subsidiarity, empowerment, law enforcement and the rule of law.