Foreign Mining, Law and the Privatization of Property: A Case Study from Peru
(2012) 3:2 Journal of Human Rights and the Environment 217-253
37 Pages Posted: 3 May 2010 Last revised: 4 Oct 2012
Date Written: May 1, 2011
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
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation