Foreign Mining, Law and the Privatization of Property: A Case Study from Peru

Abstract

The Spanish version of this paper can be found at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1879947

This article focuses on the convergence of the corporate power of Yanacocha Mine with the Peruvian State’s public power, studied in relation to two interrelated and fundamental sites of power: Indigenous land rights and the regulation of the use of force. The analysis presents two international human rights litigation initiatives: the Negritos Case and the GRUFIDES Case, which illustrate the complex relationship between Peru’s colonial history, Yanacocha’s current status as one of the most profitable goldmines in the world, serious land rights violations, and the emergence of widespread social protest and the escalating use of private security companies by multinational mining companies. The analysis addresses four legal processes flowing from the private–public convergence: (1) the dispossession of Campesino communal land; (2) the production of Campesino consent; (3) the privatization of coercive force; and (4) the absence of effective legal remedies. The conclusion considers the significance of the case study for those who seek to use the law to engage in practices of resistance to the power configuration represented by the private–public convergence.

Keywords: Indigenous and Campesino land rights, public–private convergence, corporate impunity, state complicity, international human rights law, national legal strategies, practices of resistance

JEL Classification: K30