Contesting a River Basin: Civil Society's Legal Strategies

This chapter explores the varied role of civil society in hydropower development on the Mekong, in light of the social, economic and political conditions in each country. It finds that civil society is generally reluctant to challenge hydropower development in the courts for many reasons, although it has occasionally done so in Thailand. Rather, civil society frequently utilizes law in a myriad of other ways in all of the Mekong countries: when engaging administrative and political authorities; in confronting private actors directly or through international accountability procedures; and through legal education, empowerment and research. Even where legal strategies are not at the forefront of resistance, as with the mass protest campaigns of the Assembly of the Poor, law still structures and enables resistance in key ways.

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