Legal Remedies for the Resource Curse is a digest of practical experience in using law to combat corruption across jurisdictions. When resource extraction companies can obtain oil, diamonds, gold, coltan, timber, and other natural resources through covert contacts with unaccountable government officials, the losers are the people in the communities where the wealth originates. The power of corrupt governments frequently derives from monopoly access to natural wealth, bolstered by foreign government and industry allies. Local populations suffer the effects of the "resource curse," including the destruction of their immediate environment and the social and economic devastation that follows: arbitrary eviction and dispossession, unlawful arrest or harassment, and neglect of health care, housing, and education. [refers to Elf Aquitaine (now part of Total), Kellogg Brown & Root (part of Halliburton), Rougier and its Cameroonian subsidiary SFID, Acres, Riggs Bank (now part of PNC Financial Services), Banco Santander (part of Grupo Santander), HSBC, Shell, Nigerian National Petroleum Company]