The Legal Cultures of the Subsoil - Database Launch
Monday 10 June 2019

ILAS lecturer, Ainhoa Montoya, has recently launched the 'Legal Cultures of the Subsoil' database, an online resource which compiles legal actions and documentation (artefacts) devised in the context of mining conflicts.
The database is the result of an ESRC-funded anthropological project, 'Legal Cultures of the Subsoil', led by Dr Montoya, that explored how legal languages, instruments and institutions are employed by different actors within the field of environmental politics, specifically in the context of mining conflicts. It currently contains information on six mining projects in Central America, with plans to expand to other Latin American regions in the future.
The database will continue to be developed and expanded during 2020, as part of a British Academy-GCRF sponsored project ‘The Juridification of Resource Conflicts: Legal Cultures, Moralities and Environmental Politics in Central America’. A Spanish-language version will be available by the end of 2020.
To learn more about the database and the wider “Legal Cultures of the Subsoil” project please consult the following blog contributions:
- The Legal Cultures of the Subsoil’: mapping the use of law in environmental politics in Central America
- A database of legal actions and artefacts devised in conflicts over mineral resources
To access the database