THE LEGAL ASSEMBLAGE STRATEGY: NEW FRAMEWORKS FOR WATER SECURITY DISPUTES

This thesis develops a novel analytical framework, the legal assemblage strategy, to examine how communities can strategically mobilize heterogeneous legal norms in water security disputes against extractive industries. Grounded in Rodolfo Sacco's theory of legal formants, the framework posits that communities can assemble constitutional, international, and customary law as distinct formants to generate juridical leverage across multiple normative scales. Three case studies demonstrate the analytical utility of this framework. Case Study I, set in Cajamarca, Peru, analyzes how ronderos (community leaders) assembled constitutional, international, and customary formants to protect the Chancay-Lambayeque River Basin from the Minera La Zanja gold mining project. This assemblage created a legal configuration distinct from traditional legal pluralism, wherein multiple legal formants converged to assert procedural and environmental rights. Case Study II, based in Mato Grosso, Brazil, details how the Chiquitano community of Vila Nova Barbecho’s applied participation-based research methodologies, specifically the design of visual legal instruments, to defend their water access rights to the Tarumã River. In doing so, the community members established accessible legal regimes within intersecting constitutional, international, and indigenous legal frameworks. Case Study III, situated in Extremadura, Spain, constructs a tri-modal assemblage for stakeholders opposing the San José Infinity Lithium Project (currently in the permitting stage) to contest violations should the project generate environmental harm, emphasizing compliance with EU environmental law to protect the Tagus River Basin's El Calerizo Aquifer. Extending Sacco’s theory, this thesis identifies two emergent formants, participatory and hydrogeological, that enable communities to integrate constitutional structures, legislative mechanisms, judicial interpretation, and scientific knowledge to contest natural resource extraction. The comparative analysis reveals that institutional design, participatory mechanisms, and environmental governance systems are critical preconditions for advancing effective legal assemblage strategies. Ultimately, the legal assemblage strategy contributes to comparative legal theory by articulating an innovative mode of legal mobilization and demonstrating how stakeholders can navigate stratified legal orders to defend water rights and uphold environmental protections against extractive industry projects