Multiscale juridification of the mining industry: Experiences in Central America and Mexico

Abstract

Multiscalarity is a central feature of the neoliberal governance of extractivist models that are constructed by interweaving multiple levels and jurisdictions of public and private law. In this article, we expose the complex relationships between the multiscale landscape of global legal pluralism that structures socioenvironmental conflicts over mining, the processes of juridification and the varied forms of violence that motivate quests for justice. We briefly outline the legal dimensions of industrial mining and conceptually explore the specificities of multiscale juridification in relation to this activity. Based on ethnography and document analysis among different legal defense and grassroots organizations, we examine three cases of socioenvironmental conflicts in Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico. This allows us to show how fragmented multiscalarity means that rights recognized in one jurisdiction can become invisible in another and be accompanied by a repressive use of law or lawfare. We conclude that even in fields of power marked by abysmal inequalities and ecologies of multiple forms of violence, juridified struggles open up new possibilities for social and political mobilization. We also argue that such struggles facilitate connections between jurisdictions, subjects and places, and generate new political grammars.