In recent decades the global land rush /grabbing has known a rapid expansion; these transnational land deals have caused serious social, environmental and political problems, as this conference discusses. Informed by interdisciplinary studies on the global land rush, and based upon field experience in southern Asia, this presentation addresses several key questions, trying to map out the structurally disadvantaged people affected by global land rush, and the conditions that led to this situation. It also analyzes actors, norms and processes that are part of the phenomenon of the global land rush. The goal is to reveal that the legal system of investment arbitration and transnational public contracts are two possible spaces for interventions in remedying the problems of the global land rush.