First Page
520
Abstract
This Note examines the clash between domestic law and international law within the context of Chile’s 2022 modification to the 1981 Water Code as the country transitions from treating water as a privatized commodity to water as a public good. Chile’s 1981 Water Code emerged against the backdrop of a neoliberal economic regime and privatization scheme enabled by the United States and enforced by dictator Augusto Pinochet. This Note reveals the potential difficulties in unraveling established economic and legal foundations, and the conflicts between bilateral investment treaties and local legislation that mutually govern property rights. By examining Chile’s domestic Law 21.435 and comparing it to the Chile-Spain BIT, this Note underscores the tension between water as a human right and water as investment property and the threat that foreign investment poses to state sovereignty.
Recommended Citation
Ella Capen,
Navigating the Legal Waters of Privatized Commodities and Human Rights: An Exploration of the Tension Between Water as a Human Right and Water as Investment Property Under International Law,
51 Brook. J. Int'l L.
520
(2026).
Available at:
https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/bjil/vol51/iss2/4
Included in
Administrative Law Commons, Agriculture Law Commons, Bankruptcy Law Commons, Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Conflict of Laws Commons, Constitutional Law Commons, Dispute Resolution and Arbitration Commons, Energy and Utilities Law Commons, Environmental Law Commons, Health Law and Policy Commons, Human Rights Law Commons, International Law Commons, Jurisdiction Commons, Law and Economics Commons, Law and Philosophy Commons, Law and Politics Commons, Legal History Commons, Legal Remedies Commons, Natural Resources Law Commons, Property Law and Real Estate Commons, Taxation-Transnational Commons, Transnational Law Commons, Water Law Commons