Strategic Litigation in Peruvian Mining Conflicts: On the Possibilities of Using the National Legislation to Sue Transnational Corporations

Lindt, Angela (10 November 2017). Strategic Litigation in Peruvian Mining Conflicts: On the Possibilities of Using the National Legislation to Sue Transnational Corporations (Unpublished). In: Swiss Anthropological Association (SAA) Annual Meeting. Neuchâtel. 9.-11.11.2017.

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Negative impacts on the environment and on the livelihood of local populations caused by transnational corporations (TNCs) have become a politically contested issue. Corporate and state actors often argue that corporate social responsibility standards and non-mandatory initiatives are adequate to deal with these challenges and argue for international frameworks like the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPs) or the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). Civil society organizations and social movements, in contrast, consider these sets of voluntary frameworks as insufficient and demand
legally binding norms to hold TNCs liable and to regulate, for example, the global activities of mining corporations. Regardless the often challenging legal situation, there are worldwide attempts to sue TNCs in their host states.

In my PhD project I analyse how two social movements in Peru use the national legislation in the context of largescale mining projects to hold transnational corporations liable for violating human"rights or for causing environment damages. I analyse, inter alia, the use of law by local lawyers in different processes of strategic litigation. Whereas the above mentioned frameworks like the UNGPs or the VPs have had little impact in Peru, the lawyers I worked with try to bring emblematic legal cases to court and, by doing so, attempt to attribute legal responsibility to TNCs. They make strategically use of the national legislation and accompany the legal actions with lobbying and with public campaigns.

In the paper I focus on the work of a group of human rights lawyers based in Lima and on their strategies and alliances with national and international organizations. My attempt is to give an insight into the daily work of the lawyers, on their professional and personal background and on how they elaborate their strategies.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Division/Institute:	06 Faculty of Humanities > Other Institutions > Walter Benjamin Kolleg (WBKolleg) 06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Art and Cultural Studies > Institute of Social Anthropology
Graduate School:	Graduate School of the Humanities (GSH)
UniBE Contributor:	Lindt, Angela
Subjects:	300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology
Language:	English
Submitter:	Angela Tina Lindt
Date Deposited:	10 Apr 2018 07:46
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2022 15:08
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/107705