Legitimacy and regulation in the global economy: Legal mediation of conflicts between communities and transnational mining companies

The globalization of mining investment since the early 1990s has been accompanied by new and volatile conflicts between communities and transnational mining enterprises. Constrained by changes in the global political economy, many states in the Global South are either unwilling or unable to mediate these conflicts effectively. Instead, transnational legal initiatives have been proliferating which purport to address the problem.; This dissertation attempts to understand and map out, with regard to a particular policy arena, the restructuring of legal authority occurring as a result of globalizing economic, social, and political processes. It investigates the dynamic interrelation of law's regulation and legitimation functions and inquires into the meaning of democratic legitimacy in an era of globalization. The study is presented in two parts. First, the dissertation examines the global policy arena dealing with mining and community conflicts and outlines the vigorous struggles emerging from this arena over the shape of appropriate legal processes. Second, it presents a detailed case study concerning the negotiation of relations between a transnational mining enterprise and local community actors in the Andes of Peru.; Both parts of the dissertation highlight the importance of an influential transnational legal regime developed by the World Bank to mediate the social impacts of projects that it assists. Focusing on a key element of this regime---the regulation of "Involuntary Resettlement" (IR)---I analyze its regulatory and legitimation strategies through an assessment of their operation in the case study. These strategies sacrifice meaningful local participation in decision-making for expert-controlled processes. However the case study suggests that the capacity of experts working for mining companies to influence business practice depends upon prevailing business pressures.; Furthermore, regimes in the World Bank model ignore important informal processes that take place between company representatives and community actors. In the case study, local actors and company representatives developed a local legal order that proposed to govern future relations. The case study experience suggests a more productive regulatory model: one in which national and transnational legal regimes aim to facilitate local ordering by fostering the conditions necessary for effective local participation in deliberative decision-making.