Chapter 6 The right to land

"This is the first book to address and review The Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2018. Food security and sustainable agri-food systems, responsible governance of natural resources, and human rights are among the key themes of the new millennium. The Declaration is the first internationally negotiated instrument bridging these issues, calling for a radical paradigm change in the agricultural sector while giving voice to peasants and rural workers, recognized as the drivers of more equitable and resilient food systems. The book unfolds the impact of the Declaration in the wider realm of law and policymaking, especially concerning the new human rights standards related to access and control of natural resources and the governance of food systems. Chapters touch on a broad array of topics, including women’s rights, the role of and impact on indigenous peoples, food sovereignty, climate change, land tenure and agrobiodiversity. Voices from outstanding scholars and practitioners are gathered together to inform and trigger a further debate on the negotiation process, the innovative and potentially disruptive contents, the relations with other fields of law, and the practical scope of the Declaration. The volume concludes with a collection of case studies which provide concrete examples to help us understand the potential impacts of the Declaration at regional, national and local levels. This book is the first comprehensive tool to navigate the Declaration and is designed for students, researchers and practitioners in the fields of food and agriculture law, peasant, agrarian and rural studies, human rights and environmental law, and international development and cooperation.

Land grab or development opportunity? International farmland deals in Africa

This perspective discusses the increasing number and size of large-scale farmland acquisitions in Africa by foreign investors over the past five years, including the opportunities and risks created by this trend

UN FORUM SERIES – business and human rights in investment treaties: what progress?

This post was contributed by Lorenzo Cotula, who leads the International Institute for Environment and Development’s work on Legal Tools for Citizen Empowerment. On 16-18 November, hundreds of delegates from government, business, NGOs and social movements will be in Geneva for the United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights. The forum will provide an opportunity to take stock of progress made with implementing the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights

Law at two speeds: Legal frameworks regulating foreign investment in the global South

The global legal system regulating foreign investment in lower-income countries is more geared towards enabling secure transnational investment flows than it is towards ensuring that these flows benefit people in recipient countries. There is a need to improve national and international law safeguards for rights that may be affected by investment flows, and to strengthen local capacity to exercise those rights and get a better deal from incoming investment

南半球国际投资的法律构架

低收入国家的外国投资的全球法律制度监管，更面向启用安全的跨国投资流动，而不是朝着这些受援国的受益人流动。作者认为有必要改进国家和国际法律保障下的易被投资流动所影响权利，同时也要加强地方政府的权利来确保这些权力的实施，并从未来的投资中获得更大的收益

Water Rights, Poverty and Inequality: The Case of Dryland Africa

human development, water, sanitation

Beyond Trade Deals: Charting a Post-Brexit Course for UK Investment Treaties

The Brexit referendum has raised questions about the future terms of the United Kingdom’s engagement with the world economy. While a debate over the UK’s future approach to trade deals has already begun, a similar discussion has yet to develop on the treaties that govern foreign investment. As this briefing note by Lorenzo Cotula of the International Institute for Environment and Development, and Lise Johnson of CCSI highlights, the stakes are high: ill-designed treaties could leave the UK excessively exposed to legal claims by foreign companies and could fail to address relevant economic, social and environmental challenges. While meaningful negotiations are unlikely to start until the new relationship between the UK and the EU has been clarified, now would be a good time for a policy review to define a new approach. The government, parliament and the public have an important role to play in positioning the UK as a global innovator in investment treaty policy

Property rights, negotiating power and foreign investment: An international and comparative law study on Africa

Property rights are crucial in shaping foreign investment and its socio‐economic outcomes. Their allocation, protection and regulation influence the way the risks, costs and benefits of an investment are shared. For investors, the protection of property rights is a tool to shelter their business interests from arbitrary host state interference. For local people affected by an investment project, it may offer an avenue to secure their livelihoods, through providing safeguards against arbitrary land takings. Tensions may arise between different sets of property rights, as host state regulation to strengthen local resource rights may raise project costs and interfere with investors’ rights ‐ for example, under the international‐law regulatory taking doctrine, or “stabilization clauses” in investor‐state contracts. While there are vast literatures about the international law on foreign investment, the human right to property, and national law on investment, land and natural resources in Africa, this study analyses in an integrated way how the different sets of property rights involved in an investment project are legally protected under applicable law, whether national, international or “transnational”. The study explores whether the property rights of foreign investors and affected local people tend to enjoy differentiated legal protection; and, if so, whether the legal protection of “stronger” property rights may constrain efforts to strengthen “weaker” ones. This research question has both theoretical and practical implications. Differences in the strength of legal protection may affect negotiating power. Weak legal protection and negotiating power make local resource users vulnerable to arbitrary dispossession of their lands. From a theoretical standpoint, linking legal analysis to an analysis of negotiating power in foreign investment projects can provide insights on the relationship between law and power ‐ in a globalised world, does the law serve more powerful interests, can it be used to empower disadvantaged groups, or is it rather irrelevant