The NWO-WOTRO funded Integrated Program ‘Legal Empowerment as a Means to Development? A political-legal study of rights invocation by pollution victims in China and Indonesia’ sought to understand what role law can play in aiding the development of weak and poor citizens generally, and victims of pollution in China and Indonesia in particular. It did so by making a critical re-evaluation of what legal empowerment is and  how power asymmetries shape the functioning of law for the weak. The resulting insights have been applied to the legal empowerment of pollution victims in China and Indonesia.

The Van Vollenhoven Institute participated in the project through the PhD research of Laure d’Hondt, who conducted research in North Maluku, West Java, East Java, and through the post-doctoral research of Dr Zahari Zen in North Sumatra. Their research was supervised by Dr Adriaan Bedner.

• access to justice
• china
• development
• environment
• indonesia_
• legal empowerment
• pollution
• regulation

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