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）在与采掘有关的冲突中越来越多地诉诸法律的文书、机构、语言和做法，以此作为维护其对资源治理的权利的手段。自1990年代以来，随着对自然资源需求的蓬勃发展，以开采矿产和碳氢化合物为目标的外国直接投资呈指数级增长，与此同时，在这些资源的治理和管理方面存在冲突。拉丁美洲加剧了这一趋势，该地区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。这项研究将以在中美洲（萨尔瓦多、危地马拉、洪都拉斯和尼加拉瓜）进行的实地考察为基础，尽管那里正在发生大量激烈和两极分化的冲突，但对资源治理问题的学术关注很少;关于这一领域的少数现有研究仅限于单个国家或采掘作业。在填补这一空白的同时，本研究还将探讨环境政治中日益突出的跨国层面。为此目的，将在哥伦比亚特区华盛顿、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。虽然经验性案例的地理范围将限于中美洲，这项研究将寻求产生理论和实践为导向的经验教训，资源治理的冲突，发生在世界其他地方。该项目的目标有三个方面：1 -提供一个地图的法律的文化（即法律的语言，机构，文书和实践的多标量剧目）带来的利益冲突的利益相关者承担的问题治理从底土的资源。2.提供分析和概念工具，阐明在环境政治中越来越多地诉诸法律的汇编，以及这些汇编对各种利益攸关方的管理做法和决策的影响。知识的生产，同时揭示工作中相互冲突的利益。为了解决这些目标，而不是像现有的少数研究所做的那样集中在一个特定的法律的领域，该项目将采取基础广泛的方法，以便理解环境政治背景下可用的法律的全部内容（特别是在采矿方面）。这项研究将侧重于对法律的文化所涉领域的四重先验分类：㈠跨国司法和准司法机构和规范; ㈡宪法法院; ㈢国内法院和立法; ㈣在正式法律的领域之外发生的准法律的行动和类似法律的行动。以及在理论和方法论上有助于我们理解的环境政治背景下的法律的文化的新兴相关性，本研究将提供相关的原始数据系统化的数据库中，用于后续研究或参与辩论或决策的利益相关者从底土资源的管理。总的来说，这项研究将大大有助于阐明法律的领域在资源管理及其冲突方面所发挥的作用，从而为相关利益攸关方（决策者、企业界和与采矿冲突有关的民间社会组织）提供工具，鼓励采取审慎态度，激发公众和政策对良好做法的辩论。

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.