PluriLand: Theorizing Conflict and Contestation in Plural Land Rights Regimes

Institutional collaboration: Chr. Michelsen Institute, Bergen; ITAM, Mexico; Center for Policy Research, New Delhi. 

Participants: Rachel Sieder (Project leader), Tatiana Alfonso, Helena Alviar, Lara Cortes, Jackie Dugard, Mekonnen Firew Ayano, Siri Gloppen, Namita Wahi.

Funded by: Norwegian Research Council, FRIPRO

Dates: 2020 – 2024

The PluriLand project aims to develop a theory of land claiming in plural legal regimes through cross-regional investigation of conflicts over land affecting the land rights and entitlements of vulnerable communities. Despite the protection of indigenous, traditional and/or communal lands in many legal systems, such conflicts are rapidly escalating across the globe and are often highly transnational. Yet our knowledge about the mobilization and traction of protective land regimes remains fragmented, localized, and under-theorized.

PluriLand will build on and extend current theoretical knowledge about sociolegal mobilization over land claims, determining: how this is related to different kinds of threats; the impacts of the balance of national and international legal sites and frames on both processes of legal mobilization and intra-group dynamics; and the importance of context in processes of legal mobilization. The PluriLand team will undertake an interdisciplinary comparative study of plural land claims and legal regimes and their intragroup effects across six countries – South Africa, Ethiopia, India, Brazil, Guatemala, and Colombia.

The Juridification of Resource Conflicts: Legal Cultures, Moralities and Environmental Politics in Central America and Mexico

Institutional Collaboration:  Institute of Latin American Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London/ CIESAS, Mexico

Participants: Ainhoa Montoya (Principal Researcher) Rachel Sieder (Co-Researcher), María Teresa Sierra (Researcher), Yacotzin Bravo (Post-Doctoral Fellow)

Funded by: British Academy, Sustainability Development Program

Dates: September 2018 – September 2021

During the last decade, violent conflicts over natural resources have escalated and profoundly constrained opportunities for developing sustainable livelihoods. The overarching aim of this project is to assess the opportunities and limitations of legal mechanisms to channel and resolve resource conflicts. The geographical focus of the project is Central America (Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador) and the state of Guerrero (Mexico) —amongst the world’s most violent regions, where violent conflicts over mining and water sources have proliferated. Through ethnographic research on the legal actions undertaken by a range of actors over a few selected mining sites, the project will seek to understand the meanings that these actors ascribe to legal mechanisms, and the potential of the jural to provide a peaceful avenue for conflict and to promote sustainable development.

Photo credit: Frauke Decoodt

Women on the Bench: The Role of Female Judges in Fragile States

Institutional Collaboration:  Chr. Michelsen Institute, Bergen; Overseas Development Institute (ODI), London; Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen; CIESAS, Mexico

Participants: Elin Skaar (Project Coordinator), Pilar Domingo,  Rachel Sieder, Ruth Rubio Marin, Aslak Orre, Antonio De Lauri, Siri Gloppen, Torunn Wimpelmann

Funded by: Norwegian Research Council, NorGlobal

Dates: January 2017 – December 2020

In long-established western democracies, women have made inroads as judges only during the past few decades. In post-conflict and transitional developing countries, however, they constitute an increasingly larger proportion of judges. Why is this so? Situations of political rupture generally create new opportunity structures; some may favour the entry of women into public positions of power. Post-conflict assistance often includes gender friendly rule of law reforms, and the conflict itself may have placed rights issues in focus. How these conditions affect women’s access to, and utilization of, positions of judicial power has not received much attention in the literature. This project asks: What are the main pathways of women judges to the bench? What are the gendered experiences of women on the bench? How and in what ways does having more women on the bench impact on judicial outcomes? In essence, what difference do women judges make?

Photo credit: Organismo Judicial, Guatemala
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