A false promise? Regulating land-grabbing and the post-colonial state
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12187305 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ntina Tzouvala (0000-0003-3908-841X, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 235-253 |
| Publication date | 2019-03-08 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Leiden Journal of International Law (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0922-1565 • E-ISSN: 1478-9698 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0922156519000128 |
| OpenAlex | W2921864414 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 26 |
Since 2008, a global ‘land rush’ has been unfolding and so have efforts by international, national and regional actors to position themselves as the principal authorities in the determination of appropriate usages of land. This article examines three of the most influential ‘soft law’ instruments: the Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment; the Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems and; the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure. Despite their substantive differences, all three documents share a specific form of state-centrism. They imagine the host state of such large-scale investments as internally unitary and externally independent and entrust it with the bulk of responsibilities regarding the management of land investments. However, I argue that this particular form of state-centrism obscures the legal and administrative realities of the post-colonial state that is often legally bifurcated and subject to pervasive forms of international authority. Rather, an appreciation of the multitude of actors who claim jurisdiction over the lands of the South enables a better understanding of the legal mechanics of land-grabbing. Sierra Leone, which has been positioned as a ‘poster child’ for the implementation of such ‘soft law’ instruments, serves as the focal point of this jurisdictional approach to land-grabbing. In this context, the promise of ‘soft law’ instruments to make the post-colonial state the guarantor of universally beneficial large-scale land acquisitions is shown to be a false one
Agrarian society · Agriculture · Business · Colonialism · Context (archaeology · Corporate governance · Geography · International law · Jurisdiction · Land grabbing · Law and economics · Political economy · Political science · Sociology · State (computer science · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Land Rights and Reforms · Law
Land Rush in Contemporary Paraguay
Reckoning with colonial injustice
Potentialities in Applying Foucault’s Discourse Analysis to World Bank Research
International law, the paradox of plenty and the making of resource-driven conflict
Youth’s access to agricultural land in Sub-Saharan Africa
Care as Resistance on Behalf of the Commons
The New International Economic Order
The re-co-construction of legitimacy of/through the Doing Business indicators
We Have No Voice for That”
Land Grabbing and Global Governance
Colonial legacies, land policies and the millennium development goals
The New Enclosures? Polanyi, international investment law and the global land rush
Quantifying Law
Large-scale land deals in Sierra Leone at the intersection of gender and lineage
From Nieo to Now and the Unfinishable Story of Economic Justice
The political economy of international transitional administration
Peasant grievance and insurgency in Sierra Leone
Co-opting Authority and Privatizing Force in Rural Africa
Knowledge and Control in the Contemporary Land Rush
The politics of evidence
Green Grabbing
How not to think of land-grabbing
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.86 |
| Citation span | 2019 - 2026 (8) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |