Law, Infrastructure, and Human Rights.

• Date: 01 January 2007
• Author: Madni, Rubina

Law, Infrastructure, and Human Rights, by Michael B. Likosky

Publisher: Cambridge University Press (2006) Price: $35 Reviewed by: Rubina Madni

Shortly after Royal Dutch Shell first discovered natural gas in Peru in 1980, the Peruvian government contracted with Shell and Mobil to exploit the reserves, with the hopes of bringing great wealth to the impoverished South American country by making it a net exporter of hydrocarbons. The project involved the construction of a pipeline that would cut through the land of many indigenous communities in the Amazon rain forest, however, and human rights activists mounted numerous campaigns against the gas companies and banks that financed the project. Shell and Mobil eventually pulled out of the project due to disagreements with the Peruvian government over issues like pricing, but the concern for human rights that came to the forefront during this time remained a prominent issue connecting to and sometimes clashing with Peru's development agenda.

The advancement of human rights and standards of living are predicated on the development of infrastructure, which allows access to such basic necessities as water, shelter, electricity, and food. The relationship between infrastructure and human rights is not perfectly harmonious, however, because in the course of developing infrastructure projects, human rights--such as those of indigenous Amazon communities during the above-mentioned Camisea project--are often compromised. Michael B. Likosky's Law, Infrastructure, and Human Rights analyzes the complex interplay between human rights and the development of infrastructure projects through transnational public-private partnerships (PPPs).

Following a thorough explanation of the technical aspects of the finance, construction, and operation stages of infrastructure projects, Likosky examines how human rights concerns are handled in the context of international privatized infrastructure projects. Analyzing the linkages between PPPs, compound corporations, and human rights risks through five case studies--Iraq, antiterrorism, banks, EU enlargement, and antipoverty--Likosky explores how legal strategies address development-generated human rights concerns in practice, and suggests ways in which the nature of the relationship between transnational PPPs and human rights can be improved.

Some explanation of terminology is called for here, and Likosky provides it. A PPP is an infrastructure project that is privatized but...