Is it growth or just greed? A case study on the Mandalika project conducted with a TWAIL lens to research if international law reinforces neocolonialism.

Abstract

This essay presents a case study on the tourism-driven development project Mandalika, in Lombok, Indonesia with the use of a TWAIL lens to explore if international law reinforces neocolonial dynamics. It does so through a comparison between foreign investors and local communities conflicting rights to Mandalika land in investment and human rights law. The case study resulted in a conclusion that while the rights of the foreign investors and the local persons have similar strength in the concrete legal regulation it in practice favours the foreign investors, the global north bias and reinforce neocolonial dynamics. This happens through a distinct, legally binding BIT with a dedicated arbitration mechanism that governs the rights of foreign investors while in contrast the non-binding, “universal” framework of human rights without arbitration opportunities governs the rights of local communities. The case study has through this analysis exposed structural power imbalances, favorable biases, reproduction of neocolonialism, the importance of the domestic regulation and the historical origins in accordance with the TWAIL theory.