With governance increasingly regarded as co-governance, states’ capacity to steer, correct, and discipline a wide range of self-governing actors becomes crucial for states’ effectiveness,... Show moreWith governance increasingly regarded as co-governance, states’ capacity to steer, correct, and discipline a wide range of self-governing actors becomes crucial for states’ effectiveness, efficiency, and democracy. This article investigates that capacity and the relationship between formal institutions and customary self-governance in areas of limited statehood. In South Sudan, the field of land governance can be regarded as an area of limited statehood. As land relations are closely connected to clan structures and intra-familial relationships, customary norms and institutions enjoy great legitimacy and are an important locus of local land governance and dispute resolution. The South Sudanese government has promulgated legal provisions for equal rights to property and inheritance that clash head-on with customary notions of gender roles in the family and the preservation of family land. By focusing on the case of women’s land rights in South Sudan, combining literature study with data from exploratory fieldwork in two South Sudanese towns, this article aims to reflect on the cohabitation of customary and formal norms and values and the role formal legal and administrative systems, in areas of limited statehood, can and do play in boundary setting for customary self-governance. Show less
The scholarship on legitimacy of dispute settlement institutions has largely ignored community mediation institutions operating in the global south. This article aims to remedy that gap, through a... Show moreThe scholarship on legitimacy of dispute settlement institutions has largely ignored community mediation institutions operating in the global south. This article aims to remedy that gap, through a case study of community mediation groups in South Sudan, a state emerging from large-scale conflict where formal courts are only marginally able to fulfill their assigned roles and the rule of law needs to be built almost from the ground-up. The article studies both the empirical legitimacy of the community mediation groups and how they relate to the rule of law building project in the country. Is the empirical legitimacy of formal and informal dispute settlement institutions as a zero-sum relationship, where increasing popularity and use of informal dispute settlement institutions detract from the popularity and empirical legitimacy of formal institutions, inhibiting the maturation of the legal system and a rule of law? Or could informal dispute settlement institutions – with proper linkages to the formal system – strengthen formal institutions, both judicial and administrative? These are highly relevant questions for post-conflict states where building a well-functioning legal system is seen as a precondition for sustainable peace and development. Show less
This paper sets out why land expropriation is a hidden danger of the response to climate change; a danger that is not adequately captured in legislation and that risks disproportionately affecting... Show moreThis paper sets out why land expropriation is a hidden danger of the response to climate change; a danger that is not adequately captured in legislation and that risks disproportionately affecting the poor. Measures to mitigate the risks and impacts of climate change are often dependent on states’ access to land. The legal mechanism through which states can obtain rights over land is expropriation, but a fair expropriation process depends on a number of structural conditions that are (partly or completely) lacking in many countries: effective recognition of people’s land rights; a legally detailed expropriation process and adequate administrative capacity to implement it; and respect for the rule of law and access to justice for the affected populations. Climate change exacerbates the problems that many states have with their expropriation processes: it brings new and more complex questions about the limits of expropriation; provokes more urgent expropriations; and disproportionately impacts the poorest people. Based on legal analysis and empirical research, this paper looks into the case of Mozambique in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai to show how issues related with expropriation are a hidden danger for many Mozambicans, but also for citizens of other countries in similar situations. Show less
Land registration has a magnetic appeal to politicians, state officials, and practitioners. The objective of this paper is, in dialogue with the other papers of this special volume, to highlight... Show moreLand registration has a magnetic appeal to politicians, state officials, and practitioners. The objective of this paper is, in dialogue with the other papers of this special volume, to highlight some of the main assumptions and misconceptions on which land registration programs are often developed, the problems that they cause if not carefully implemented, and the conditions in which they can actually improve people’s lives. This paper, based on my doctoral research (2020), does not aim to be a comprehensive literature review on existingknowledge regarding land registration nor an analysis of land registration in Timor-Leste, but aims instead to highlight a number of key authors and ideas on land registration that can contribute to the dialogue about this topic in Timor-Leste. Show less
