The past decades have witnessed a renewed increase in land acquisitions for food production, resource extraction and development on a global scale. International law plays a multifarious, sometimes contradictory, role in this regard. On the one hand, it facilitates the treatment of land as commodity through trade and investment, while on the other, it recognises the importance of land(scape) as the mainstay for peoples’ livelihoods, culture, environment, and way of life. Despite the recognition of the collective right to property for indigenous peoples, access to justice remains a major challenge for many communities facing destruction of their local landscapes worldwide.
PROPERTY[IN]JUSTICE (2020-2025) investigates the role of international law in creating spatial justice and injustice through its conception of property rights in land. In going beyond traditional legal analysis to include interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspectives, the project aims to push the boundaries of property and advocate for more place-based understandings of land across international law. The project is funded by the European Research Council (ERC), led by Amy Strecker, and hosted by the Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin.