Human Rights, the Rule of Law and Exploitation in the Postcolony

Human Rights, the Rule of Law and Exploitation in the Postcolony: Blood Minerals examines how the legal frameworks of the global economy position the inhabitants of the postcolonial south in a legal and moral position that facilitates economic exploitation, juridical regulation, and dominion over land and resources. Drawing on several exemplary situations - from Africa (the DRC and Nigeria), Asia (India), the Pacific region (Papua New Guinea and Australia) and South America (Ecuador) - Blood Minerals describes how colonial rule operates in a violent and destructive cycle of mineral extraction. It shows how the populations of the postcolonial global south are stripped of juridical personality and become persona nullius, as the legal-economic frameworks of globalization enact colonial rule by declaring the lands that are to be exploited as void of law.