Remoteness Reconsidered: The Atacama Desert and International Law

303 Pages·2021·3.059 MB·English

by  Christopher Rossi

remoteness reconsidered

remoteness reconsidered
The Atacama Desert and International Law
christopher r. rossi
University of Michigan Press
Ann Arbor
Copyright 2021 by Christopher R. Rossi
All rights reserved
For questions or permissions, please contact [email protected]
Published in the United States of America by
the University of Michigan Press
Manufactured in the United States of America
Printed on acid- free paper
First published July 2021
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978- 0- 472- 13257- 7 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978- 0- 472- 12905- 8 (ebook)
Cover photo: Iván A. Cortés Gómes. Mano Del Desierto sculpture by Mario Irarrázabal.
For Nicholas “Christian”

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
1 • Introduction 1
The Path of This Book 11
2 • Remoteness Generally Reconsidered 15
Elements of Remoteness 24
Temporal Remoteness and the Problem of Periodization 26
A Nearby Example of Problematic Periodization:
How Remote Is the Cold War? 28
International Law’s Struggle with Remoteness and Periodization 30
Two Current Problems of Remoteness:
Globalization and the Anthropocene 35
Geographic Remoteness 38
Territorializing Remoteness 40
Lines and Maps 41
Doctrinal Remoteness 55
Demarginalizing the Desert 60
Conclusion 73
3 • Nomos 76
Carl Schmitt and Nomos 78
The Dynamics of Biogeography 85
Nomos and Ayllus 89
Spanish Incursions into the Atacama 94
4 • Guano and Nitrates 105
The War of the Pacific 112
viii • Contents
5 • Water 118
The Source of the Riparian Dispute 123
A Deep History of Tension 130
Psychological Effects of the War of the Pacific
and Goffmanian Metaphor 132
The Importance of Metaphors and International Law 133
Dramaturgy 135
Ceremonial Profanations and Legal Vandalism 139
The Evolution of Transboundary Freshwater Law 142
Evolution of the International Law Defining Watercourse 142
The Watercourses Convention 143
A Clash of Interests: Sovereignty versus Watercourse Integrity 144
The Doctrine of International Servitude 145
The Absolute View: The Harmon Doctrine 146
The Restrictive Theory of Prior Rights 148
Rise of Equitable Use and Mutual Accord:
A Community of Interest? 150
Conclusion 157
6 • Lithium 160
Competing Perspectives 172
Chile’s Economic Transition and “Lost Decade” 174
The Chicago Boys 179
Bolivia and Dependency Theory: The Antipode 192
Bolivia’s Alternative View of Extractivism 196
Lingering Effects of Bolivia’s Postcolonial Encounter 196
Bolivia’s Fitful Relation to Neoliberalism 199
Argentina and Neoliberalism 201
Conclusion 204
7 • The Spatial Turn, Extractivism, and Remoteness 208
Bibliography 217
Name Index 267
Subject Index 281
Digital materials related to this title can be found on
the Fulcrum platform via the following citable URL
https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11728155
Acknowledgments
I forever remain grateful to librarians for valuable assistance, including
Don Ford, foreign, comparative, and international law librarian at the
Iowa Law College; Ellen L. Jones, university reference librarian; Brett
Cloyd, university research and government information librarian; Ryan
Moore, information specialist at the Geography and Map Division of the
Library of Congress; and once again, Arthur E. Bonfield, associate dean
for research emeritus and Allan D. Vestal Chair and former head law
librarian at the Iowa Law College. I am also grateful to John Reitz,
Edward Carmody Professor of Law and director of graduate programs
and visiting scholars, and Adrien Katherine Wing, associate dean for
international and comparative law programs and Bessie Dutton Murray
Professor of Law, for unhesitatingly encouraging and supporting my
research. I also thank Jonathan C. Carlson, Victor and Carol Alvarez Fel-
low in Law, and Stella Burch Elias, professor and Chancellor William
Gardiner Hammond Fellow in Law for comments on draft chapters.
Iowa Law College students Thais Fernandes Pereira and Gada Al Herz
helped to compile the bibliography, and Hsin- Yi “Sandy” Hsieh did a
wonderful job tracking down errant or missing details and tending to
bibliographic details.
I also extend particular thanks to Charles Jones, emeritus reader in
international relations at Wolfson College, Cambridge, for insightful
and pointed criticisms, and cartographic historian Chet Van Duzer, for
clarifying some oddities associated with Martin Waldseemüller’s amazing
and curious early- sixteenth- century maps. I am grateful again to Arthur
Bonfield for granting me access to his private collection of sixteenth-
and seventeenth- century primary sources on the Age of Discovery, and
for guiding me through the works of Samuel Purchas, Alexander Esque-