Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on the contributors
- 1 Law, politics, and the subaltern in counter-hegemonic globalization
- PART ONE LAW AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF A GLOBAL ECONOMY OF SOLIDARITY
- PART TWO TRANSNATIONAL SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND THE RECONSTRUCTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
- 8 Limits of law in counter-hegemonic globalization: the Indian Supreme Court and the Narmada Valley struggle
- 9 The Movement of the Landless (MST), juridical field, and legal change in Brazil
- 10 Indigenous rights, transnational activism, and legal mobilization: the struggle of the U'wa people in Colombia
- 11 Defensive and oppositional counter-hegemonic uses of international law: from the International Criminal Court to the common heritage of humankind
- PART THREE LAW AND PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY: BETWEEN THE LOCAL AND THE GLOBAL
- Index
- References
8 - Limits of law in counter-hegemonic globalization: the Indian Supreme Court and the Narmada Valley struggle
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 July 2009
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on the contributors
- 1 Law, politics, and the subaltern in counter-hegemonic globalization
- PART ONE LAW AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF A GLOBAL ECONOMY OF SOLIDARITY
- PART TWO TRANSNATIONAL SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND THE RECONSTRUCTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
- 8 Limits of law in counter-hegemonic globalization: the Indian Supreme Court and the Narmada Valley struggle
- 9 The Movement of the Landless (MST), juridical field, and legal change in Brazil
- 10 Indigenous rights, transnational activism, and legal mobilization: the struggle of the U'wa people in Colombia
- 11 Defensive and oppositional counter-hegemonic uses of international law: from the International Criminal Court to the common heritage of humankind
- PART THREE LAW AND PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY: BETWEEN THE LOCAL AND THE GLOBAL
- Index
- References
Summary
INTRODUCTION
Popular struggles have an ambivalent relationship with the law. At one level, they tend to see law as a force for status quo and domination, which must either be contested as part of a larger political struggle or largely ignored as irrelevant. Yet, they can hardly avoid the law as it also provides them space for resistance. Indeed, there is an increasing sensibility that law is a terrain of contestation between different actors including social movements and states, and that a theory of law or adjudication that ignores this fact is inadequate. There are several reasons why this is so under conditions of globalization. First, law operates at multiple scales under globalization, that is, simultaneously at the international, national, and local levels. As such, it provides much greater opportunity to use law as a tool of contestation by social movements who can deploy legal tools at one level against another (Klug 2000; Santos 2002). Secondly, the forces that social movements are up against in their counter-hegemonic struggles are often a combination of local and global elites, and that in turn defines the space for a politics of resistance that is neither purely local nor global (Klug 2000:50–51; see also Esteva and Prakash 1998). This is particularly so in the case of contestations over development (Khagram, Riker, and Sikkink 2002) and especially over large dams (World Commission on Dams 2000).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Law and Globalization from BelowTowards a Cosmopolitan Legality, pp. 183 - 217Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005
References
. 1995. In the Belly of the River: Tribal Conflicts over Development in the Narmada Valley. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Baxi, Upendra. 1987. “Taking Human Suffering Seriously: Social Action Litigation Before the Supreme Court of India.” In The Role of the Judiciary in Plural Societies, edited by and . New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
.2003. “A Known But an Indifferent Judge: Situating Ronald Dworkin in Contemporary Indian Jurisprudence.” International Journal of Constitutional Law 1:557–589.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Desai, Ashok H., and S. Muralidhar. 2000. “Public Interest Litigation: Potential and Problems.” In Supreme But Not Infallible: Essays in Honour of the Supreme Court of India, edited by , , , , and . New Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
, and . 1997. Dealing in Virtue: International Commercial Arbitration and the Construction of a Transnational Legal Order. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
1998. The Rights Revolution: Lawyers, Activists, and Supreme Courts in Comparative Perspective. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
, and . 1998. Grassroots Postmodernism: Remaking the Soil of Cultures. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
, and (Eds.). 1998. Illegal Cities: Law and Urban Change in Developing Countries. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
(Ed.). 1995. Toward Sustainable Development? Struggling over India's Narmada River. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
. 1992. The Transformation of American Law, 1870–1960. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
. 2001. Democracy and the State: Welfare, Secularism and Development in Contemporary India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
, and . 1998. Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Khagram, Sanjeev. 2002. “Restructuring the Global Politics of Development: The Case of India's Narmada Valley Dams.” In Restructuring World Politics: Transnational Social Movements, Networks and Norms, edited by , , and . Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
, , and (Eds.). 2002. Restructuring World Politics: Transnational Social Movements, Networks and Norms. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
, , , , and (Eds.). 2000. Supreme But Not Infallible: Essays in Honour of the Supreme Court of India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
. 2000. Constituting Democracy: Law, Globalism and South Africa's Political Reconstruction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kothari, Smitu. 1995. “Damming the Narmada and the Politics of Development.” In Toward Sustainable Development? Struggling over India's Narmada River, edited by . Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Mamdani, Mahmood, Thandika Mkandawire, and E. Wamba-dia-Wamba. 1993. “Social Movements and Democracy in Africa.” In New Social Movements in the South, edited by . London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
, and . 1992. Sardar Sarover: Report of the Independent Review. Ottawa: Resources Futures International.Google Scholar
Nandy, Ashis. 1992. “State.” In Development Dictionary: A Guide to Knowledge as Power, edited by . London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Patel, Anil. 1995. “What Do the Narmada Valley Tribals Want?” In Toward Sustainable Development? Struggling over India's Narmada River, edited by . Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Patkar, Medha. 1995. “The Struggle for Participation and Justice: A Historical Narrative” In Toward Sustainable Development? Struggling over India's Narmada River, edited by . Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Rajagopal, Balakrishnan. 2000. “The Supreme Court and Human Rights.” The Hindu, December 6.
.2003a. International Law from Below: Development, Social Movements and Third World Resistance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
.2003b. “International Law and Social Movements: Challenges of Theorizing Resistance.” Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 41:397–433.Google Scholar
. 2000. “The Power of Norms Versus the Norms of Power: Transnational Civil Society and Human Rights.” In The Third Force: The Rise of Transnational Civil Society. Washington, DC: Japan Center for International Exchange, Tokyo, and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.Google Scholar
, , and (Eds.). 1999. The Power of Human Rights: International Norms and Domestic Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2002. Risks and Rights: The Causes, Consequences and Challenges of Development-Induced Displacement. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
, and . 1993. “Social Movements and the Policy Process.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 528:75–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
. 1991. The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring About Social Change?Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Salve, Harish. 2000. “Justice Between Generations: Environment and Social Justice.” In Supreme But Not Infallible: Essays in Honour of the Supreme Court of India, edited by , , , , and . New Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
. 2000. The River and Life: People's Struggle in the Narmada Valley. Mumbai: Earthcare Books.Google Scholar
Sharma, Kalpana. 2004a. “Gujarat Given Permission to Raise Narmada Dam Height.” The Hindu, March 17.
Sharma, Kalpana2004b. “Medha Patkar Forms Political Front.” The Hindu, March 18.
. 1995. “Constructing a New Rights Regime: Promises, Problems and Prospects.” Social and Legal Studies 8:253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2001. “Gender and the Constitution from a Social Movement Perspective.” University of Pennsylvania Law Review 150:297–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1996. “Common Law Constitutional Interpretation.” University of Chicago Law Review 63:877.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Udall, Lori. 1995. “The International Narmada Campaign: A Case Study of Sustained Advocacy.” In Toward Sustainable Development? Struggling over India's Narmada River, edited by . Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Venkatesan, J. 2002. “Arundhati Roy Jailed for Contempt of Court.” The Hindu, March 7.
World Commission on Dams. 2000. Dams and Development: A New Framework for Decision-Making. London: Earthscan.
- 13
- Cited by