‘Land grabbing’ in the shadow of the law: legal frameworks regulating the global land rush

A renewed global interest in acquiring Africa’s land for agricultural investments is taking place in legal contexts more geared towards enabling secure transnational investment flows than towards ensuring that these flows benefit people in recipient countries. This chapter from the book: 'The Challenge of Food Security' (Edward Elgar 2012), analyses national and international law, and calls for more robust legal safeguards and for efforts to strengthen local capacity to exercise rights. This chapter has been prepared under IIED’s Legal tools for citizen empowerment project.