The Legal Cultures of the Subsoil: The Judicialisation of Environmental Politics in Central America

拟议项目将探讨一系列利益攸关方(公司、政府和民间社会组织)在与开采有关的冲突中越来越多地诉诸法律文书、机构、语言和做法，以此作为维护其对资源治理的权利的一种手段。自1990年代以来，随着对自然资源的需求激增，针对矿物和碳氢化合物开采的外国直接投资呈指数级增长，同时围绕这些资源的治理和管理发生冲突。拉丁美洲就是这一趋势的例证，该区域的采掘冲突已成为当地和国际利益攸关方广泛关注的问题。这项研究将基于在中美洲(萨尔瓦多、危地马拉、洪都拉斯和尼加拉瓜)进行的实地调查，尽管那里正在发生大量激烈和两极分化的冲突，但在资源治理问题上几乎没有受到学术关注；关于这一领域的现有少数研究仅限于单一国家或采掘业务。在填补这一空白的同时，这项研究还将考察环境政治中日益突出的跨国层面。为此，将在华盛顿特区、日内瓦和伦敦进行定性研究，以阐明全球司法和准司法跨国机构、规范和协定所发挥的作用。虽然经验案例的地理范围将限于中美洲，但这项研究将寻求为世界其他地方正在发生的资源治理冲突提供理论和实践方面的经验教训。该项目的目标有三个：1-提供利益相关者带来的法律文化(即法律语言、机构、文书和实践的多标量曲目)与底层资源治理问题的利益冲突的地图。2-提供分析和概念工具，阐明环境政治中越来越多地诉诸法律汇辑，以及这些汇辑对一系列利益攸关方的管理做法和决策的影响。3-提供一种方法，将持相反观点的利益相关者聚集在一起，并刺激他们从事自我反省的做法和共同创造知识，同时揭示工作中相互冲突的利益。为了实现这些目标，而不是像现有的少数研究那样专注于特定的法律领域，该项目将采取一种基础广泛的办法，以便在环境政治(特别是在采矿方面)的背景下理解现有的法律汇编。这项研究将侧重于对法律文化领域进行先验的四重分类：一)跨国司法和准司法机构和规范；二)宪法法院；三)国内法院和立法；四)在正式法律领域之外发生的准法律行为和类似法律的行为。除了在理论和方法上有助于我们理解法律文化在环境政治背景下的新的相关性之外，这项研究还将提供相关的原始数据，这些数据在数据库中系统化，以供后续研究或参与关于底层资源管理的辩论或决策的利益攸关方使用。总体而言，这项研究将极大地有助于阐明法律领域在资源治理及其冲突方面所发挥的作用，从而为相关利益攸关方(关注采矿冲突的政策制定者、工商界和民间社会组织)提供工具，鼓励持谨慎态度，并激发关于良好做法的公共和政策辩论。

The proposed project will explore the increasing resort to legal instruments, institutions, languages and practices by a range of stakeholders (corporations, governments, and civil society organisations) in the context of extraction-related conflicts as a means to assert their rights over resource governance. Coinciding with the booming demand for natural resources since the 1990s, foreign direct investment targeted toward the extraction of minerals and hydrocarbons has grown exponentially, in tandem with conflicts over the governance and management of these resources. Latin America exemplifies this trend, with conflicts over extraction in the region having become a concern for a wide range of local and international stakeholders. This research will be based on fieldwork conducted in Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua), which has received little scholarly attention on the matter of resource governance despite the high number of fierce and polarised conflicts underway there; the few existing studies on this area have been limited to single countries or extractive operations. While filling this gap, this research will also examine the transnational dimensions that are becoming increasingly prominent within environmental politics. To this end, qualitative research will be conducted in Washington, DC, Geneva and London in order to shed light on the role played by global judicial and quasi-judicial transnational institutions, norms and agreements. Although the geographical scope of the empirical cases will be limited to Central America, this research will seek to yield theoretical and practice-oriented lessons for conflicts over resource governance that are occurring elsewhere in the world.The objectives of the project are threefold:1 - To offer a map of the legal cultures (i.e. the multi-scalar repertoires of legal languages, institutions, instruments, and practices) brought to bear by stakeholders with colliding interests vis-à-vis the issue of governance of resources from the subsoil. 2 - To provide analytical and conceptual tools that elucidate the increasing resort to legal repertoires within environmental politics and the impacts of these repertoires on the governing practices and decision-making of a range of stakeholders.3 - To provide a methodology that brings together stakeholders with opposing views and stimulates them to engage in self-reflecting practices and the co-production of knowledge while shedding light on the colliding interests at work.To address these objectives, instead of focusing on a particular legal domain as the few existing studies have done, this project will take a broad-based approach so as to apprehend the universe of available legal repertoires in the context of environmental politics (specifically when it comes to mining). The research will focus on an a priori fourfold classification of the domains pervaded by legal cultures: i) transnational judicial and quasi-judicial institutions and norms; ii) constitutional courts; iii) domestic courts and legislation; and iv) para-legal actions and law-like actions that occur outside of formal legal arenas. As well as contributing theoretically and methodologically to our understanding of the emerging relevance of legal cultures in the context of environmental politics, this research will provide relevant raw data systematised in a database to be employed in follow-up research or by stakeholders participating in debates or decision-making on the management of resources from the subsoil. Overall, the research will contribute significantly to elucidating the role that legal arenas are playing vis-à-vis resource governance and the conflicts thereof, thereby providing relevant stakeholders (policy-makers, the business community and civil society organisations concerned with conflicts over mining) with tools that will encourage deliberative attitudes and stimulate public and policy debates on good practices.