Legalising land rights. Local Practices, State Responses and Tenure Security in Africa, Asia and Latin America

Millions of people live and work on land that they do not legally own in accordance with enforceable state law. The absence of state recognition for local property rights affects people's tenure security and impedes development. Efforts to legalise extra-legal land tenure have traditionally emphasised individual titling and registration. Disappointment with such approaches have led to a search for 'a third way' in land tenure regulation that will reconcile state perspectives with local land rights. This book contributes to the quest for a new pluralistic approach. It combines the description of land tenure regimes in Africa, Latin America and Asia with an analysis of designs, objectives, and actual implementation of specific legalisation programmes

Power and rights in the community: paralegals as leaders in women's legal empowerment in Tanzania

What can an analysis of power in local communities contribute to debates on women’s legal empowerment and the role of paralegals in Africa? Drawing upon theories of power and rights, and research on legal empowerment in African plural legal systems, this article explores the challenges for paralegals in facilitating women’s access to justice in Tanzania, which gave statutory recognition to paralegals in the Legal Aid Act 2017. Land conflicts represent the single-biggest source of local legal disputes in Tanzania and are often embedded in gendered land tenure relations. This article argues that paralegals can be effective actors in women’s legal empowerment where they are able to work as leaders, negotiating power relations and resisting the forms of violence that women encounter as obstacles to justice. Paralegals’ authority will be realised when their role is situated within community leadership structures, confirming their authority while preserving their independence

Towards Customary Legal Empowerment

Rule of Law and Development: Formation, Implementation and Improvement of Law and Governance in Developing Countrie

Genome-wide association study identifies six new loci influencing pulse pressure and mean arterial pressure.

Numerous genetic loci have been associated with systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) in Europeans. We now report genome-wide association studies of pulse pressure (PP) and mean arterial pressure (MAP). In discovery (N = 74,064) and follow-up studies (N = 48,607), we identified at genome-wide significance (P = 2.7 × 10(-8) to P = 2.3 × 10(-13)) four new PP loci (at 4q12 near CHIC2, 7q22.3 near PIK3CG, 8q24.12 in NOV and 11q24.3 near ADAMTS8), two new MAP loci (3p21.31 in MAP4 and 10q25.3 near ADRB1) and one locus associated with both of these traits (2q24.3 near FIGN) that has also recently been associated with SBP in east Asians. For three of the new PP loci, the estimated effect for SBP was opposite of that for DBP, in contrast to the majority of common SBP- and DBP-associated variants, which show concordant effects on both traits. These findings suggest new genetic pathways underlying blood pressure variation, some of which may differentially influence SBP and DBP

Contesting land and custom in Ghana: state, chief and the citizen

African policy has been showing a growing interest in promoting customary land tenure, based on the idea that the customary represents egalitarian communal arrangements. This approach ignores the fact that customary land relations have been contested throughout history, by various groups that each try to redefine what constitutes custom in a situation of change. In Ghana, land has become increasingly commoditised as a result of the growing value of real estate and the development of new commercial agricultural sectors. This has led to an intensification of attempts by chiefs, earth priests, land users, and governmental actors to redefine land ownership and tenure.The contributions to this essential volume critically examine ideas on customary land tenure in Ghana. They analyse the relations between the customary and statutory tenure and the institutional interactions between the state and traditional authorities in land administration, addressing issues of power, economic interests, transparency, accountability, conflicts and notions of social justice, equity and negotiation. They examine both past and contemporary policy issues, and present a number of case studies with implications for national and international policy-makers

How to combine tradition and modernity? Regulating customary land management in Ghana

While international land policy trends emphasise the importance of recognising and building on customary tenure systems in order to achieve equitable land management in developing countries, in Ghana, where customary transactions have become increasingly monetised, the equity of customary systems under the control of traditional chiefs is being questioned. At the heart of the problem are issues of authority to allocate land rights and the entitlements to the proceeds from such allocations. This paper focuses on peri-urban Ghana and examines how government has sought to regulate customary land management by chiefs over time, most recently through the piloting of Customary Land Secretariats (CLSs) through the Ghana Land Administration Project (LAP). It draws on evidence gathered from field research in peri-urban Kumasi between 2002 and 2005 and during the preparation and first stage implementation of LAP from 2004 to 2006 to discuss in turn: the land struggles in peri-urban communities in Ghana; the history, legal mandates and operations of government land agencies in relation to customary land; governmental discourse on customary land management and chieftaincy; and the piloting of CLSs under the aegis of traditional authorities, comparing the aims and conceptions of CLSs to actual processes and outcomes so far. Despite a modernising discourse in relation to land administration as a whole, implicit policy commitments to a historically constructed framework of traditional chiefly authority over land and to non-interference by government in chiefly affairs are not questioned in practice. The paper shows that the Ghana government has not introduced effective checks and balances on the authority of the chiefs over customary land, allowing them to transact in land in their own interests. As a result the establishment of CLSs risks entrenching unaccountable land management and it is questionable that Ghanas present approach through LAP will be able to combine tradition and modernity in an equitable way

Legalising land rights: local practices, state responses and tenure security in Africa, Asia and Latin America

Miljoenen mensen wonen en werken op land waarop zij geen officiC+le rechten hebben. Hun bezit wordt vaak wel beschermd door niet-statelijke rechten die wortelen in lokale gemeenschappen. Ontwikkelingsdeskundigen en donoren hebben lange tijd zulke onofficiC+le regelingen als een hinderpaal voor ontwikkeling gezien en gewerkt aan invoering van individueel eigendom en complexe registratie, teneinde investeringen in land, huis en bedrijfje aan te moedigen en de productiviteit te verhogen. Deze aanpak werkt niet en daarom wordt nu gezocht naar een nieuwe, pluralistischer aanpak die probeert lokale regelingen te erkennen en waar nodig te verbeteren. In dit boek worden zulke nieuwe benaderingen onderzocht. Experts uit acht landen in AziC+, Latijns-Amerika en Afrika behandelen eerst de landwetgeving en -politiek van hun land en komen dan met een concrete gevalstudie van zo'n nieuwe aanpak. Steeds is de vraag wat zo'n nieuwe statelijke aanpak van landrechten betekent in het dagelijkse leven van kleine boeren (ruraal), van bewoners van onofficiC+le stedelijke wijken (urbaan) en van mensen die onder de rook van de stad wonen en werken (peri-urbaan). Hoe zeker voelen zij zich nu van hun rechten (tenure security), kennen ze de nieuwe regeling en kunnen ze zich er effectief op beroepen (legal empowerment), werken de overheidsinstanties controleerbaar (control of bureaucrats)? Millions of people live and work on land that they do not legally own in accordance with enforceable state law. The absence of state recognition for local property rights affects people's tenure security and impedes development. Efforts to legalise extra-legal land tenure have traditionally emphasised individual titling and registration. Disappointment with such approaches have led to a search for 'a third way' in land tenure regulation that will reconcile state perspectives with local land rights. This book contributes to the quest for a new pluralistic approach. It combines the description of land tenure regimes in Africa, Latin America and Asia with an analysis of designs, objectives, and actual implementation of specific legalisation programmes. This allows for conclusions on the relationship between various kinds of legalisations and tenure security and the challenges to improve the design and implementation of legalisation programme

Contesting Land and Custom in Ghana. State, Chief and the Citizen

The contributions to this essential volume critically examine ideas on customary land tenure in Ghana. They analyse the relations between the customary and statutory tenure and the institutional interactions between the state and traditional authorities in land administration, addressing issues of power, economic interests, transparency, accountability, conflicts and notions of social justice, equity and negotiation. They examine both past and contemporary policy issues, and present a number of case studies with implications for the integration of customary institutions into the framework of state land administration