Adam McBeth, Crushed by an Anvil: A Case Study on Responsibility for Human Rights in the Extractive Sector

Abstract

Crushed by an Anvil leaves the reader, like the Kilwa victims, feeling rather defeated. Author Adam McBeth uses the Anvil Mining example to show that existing dispute resolution mechanisms are inadequate to resolve conflicts related to increasing foreign investment by multinational enterprises. His description of each forum's refusal to provide redress offers insight into the political motivations underlying each decision, though the analysis fails to offer a solution to the forum-less victims. McBeth examines the ways that various adjudicatory bodies have declined to exercise jurisdiction, but he has not adequately addressed the question of which body should decide these claims.