Land tenure issues in Timor-Leste are complex and deeply shaped by the nation’s history. Taking an insider’s perspective, this socio-legal research studies the development of the Timorese formal... Show moreLand tenure issues in Timor-Leste are complex and deeply shaped by the nation’s history. Taking an insider’s perspective, this socio-legal research studies the development of the Timorese formal land tenure system from independence in 2002 to 2018. It shows how political, legal, and administrative decisions on land administration are made, what and who influences them, which problems and dilemmas politicians and state officials face, and how the formal land tenure system works in practice. It does so through the investigation of five analytical themes: political environment, lawmaking, legal framework, institutional framework, and social relationships and practices. The result is a portrait of a young nation grappling with the enormous task of creating a land tenure system that can address the needs of its citizens in the wake of centuries of socio-political tumult and huge fluctuations in resources, while seeking to find its place on the world stage as a new nation.By studying the development of the Timorese formal land tenure system, this book engages in the larger academic debate about the role of state systems in addressing – but also causing or aggravating – various social problems, such as insecurity, poverty, inequality, destruction of nature, and cultural and social estrangement. Show less
Since the fall of the authoritarian New Order regime in 1998, the indigenous movement in Indonesia has become one of the world’s largest national movements to champion the cause of rural... Show moreSince the fall of the authoritarian New Order regime in 1998, the indigenous movement in Indonesia has become one of the world’s largest national movements to champion the cause of rural communities. Its advocacy has pushed the government to implement legal reforms that have widened the scope for recognition of collective land rights. In the context of Indonesia’s widespread land conflicts, an important question is who gets to benefit from laws that grant land rights on the basis of indigeneity? By design, such laws are limited in their scope, given that they only grant rights to those that qualify as indigenous. In order to explain how indigeneity can actually empower local communities, this book adopts the perspective of actors at the local level. Focusing on how local land users in South Sulawesi invoke indigeneity in their struggles over land, this book explores the local processes through which claims to indigenous adat land rights succeed or fail to be recognized. The book combines case studies, legal analysis, and theories on social movements and collective action frames. The book alarmingly shows that by making indigeneity a prerequisite for land rights, the most vulnerable people may actually be excluded from obtaining such rights. Show less
The central themes of this book are customary law, traditional leadership and local land management. International policy is currently witnessing a renewed interest in customary tenure systems and... Show moreThe central themes of this book are customary law, traditional leadership and local land management. International policy is currently witnessing a renewed interest in customary tenure systems and traditional leadership, through which it aims to enhance the efficiency of local governance, and create general access to and secure rights in land. Contrary to these ideas, practice reveals a lack of security of customary tenure in many areas. Mounting evidence displays that customary systems often evolve inequitably and that traditional elites benefit disproportionally from commodification of land. In an effort to understand customary land management by traditional authorities, and the role policymakers, lawmakers, judges and civil servants play in this process, this book studies practices of land management in peri-urban Kumasi. It combines local case studies with theories about efficient land management, the resilience of traditional leadership, the negotiability of customary law and the gap between judges’ customary law and local practices. Doing so, it offers a unique body of empirical and theoretical knowledge for those interested in customary land management, as well as those interested in how customary law functions both at the local level and at the level of the state, in interaction with judges, lawmakers, policymakers, and civil servants. Show less
