Pacta Sunt Servanda
As the law possesses an inherent connection to the land, disputes tend to be settled within jurisdictional borders. Adjudicative processes regarding investment into renewable energy infrastructure, however, are often decided by an independent panel in a third country, bypassing domestic courts. As renewable energy becomes a source of the laws disconnection to the land, Pacta Sunt Survanda investigates how the means by which corporations avoid constitutional jurisdiction, subvert our understanding of photographic representations of land use.
Historically, photographs of the land are used to lay visual, and then sovereign, claim to territory. The Bi-Lateral Investment Treaties that countries enter into, that stipulate Investor State Dispute Settlement as a remedy, covertly force states to chill regulation that otherwise would protect human or environmental rights.
Latvia is leading the way in claiming energy sovereignty and independence through renewable power. As these large scale infrastructure projects become more prevalent, so do the number of contracts that go wrong. Created during a residency at ISSP, Riga, Latvia, undermining the landscape aesthetic that uses the picturesque to extract value, the legal system that subverts the rights of those on the land is land undermined.
As these arbitration tribunals are held in camera (latin: in private), A Mock Trial In camera: A Performance Lecture of 3 Acts, was presented to imitate the conflicts of interests of this private, privileged and parallel legal system. Guest performer Uldis Bergmanis.