Most Interesting 2021: Genoud, Vernacularisation from Above: Finance’s Appropriation of Human Rights in Land Governance

The third in our series "Most Interesting 2021":

Christelle Genoud, Vernacularisation from Above: Finance’s Appropriation of Human Rights in Land Governance, International Journal of Human Rights, Vol. 25, no. 8, pp. 1356-73, 2021

Written against the backdrop of the 2007/2008 crisis moment, Christelle Genoud sheds light on legal responses to the adverse effects of the financialization of food production. More specifically, she investigates the extent to which initiatives, such as the Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment that Respects Rights, Livelihoods and Resources (PRAI) can deliver better conditions for local populations suffering from environmental and social harm due to industrial farming and large-scale land investments. Using three such initiatives as case studies, Genoud then demonstrates how they are used to camouflage the full extent of the devastating impact of financialized land and food governance. Engaging with the concept of ‘vernacularisation from below’ developed by legal anthropologist to describe the use of human rights in local contexts, Genoud then argues that these initiatives permit human rights to be vernacularized from above. Genoud’s paper, not only illuminates a major issue of concern in the contemporary global order, but does so convincingly. As such, this paper meaningfully contributes to international law scholarship on land-grabbing (Tzouvala 2019) and food speculations (Chadwick 2019).

Lys Kulamadayil
Post-Doc
Univ. of Amsterdam