Legal empowerment of the poor through property rights reform: tensions and tradeoffs of land registration and titling in sub-Saharan Africa

Boone, Catherine ORCID: 0000-0001-5324-7814 (2019) Legal empowerment of the poor through property rights reform: tensions and tradeoffs of land registration and titling in sub-Saharan Africa. The Journal of Development Studies, 55 (3). pp. 384-400. ISSN 0022-0388

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Abstract

Land registration and titling in Africa is often advocated as a pro-poor legal empowerment strategy. Advocates have put forth different visions of the substantive goals this is to achieve. Some see registration and titling as a way to protect smallholders’ rights of access to land. Others frame land registration as part of community-protection or ethno-justice agendas. Still others see legal empowerment in the market-enhancing commodification of property rights. This paper contrasts these different visions, showing that each entails tensions and trade-offs. The analysis helps explain why land law reforms aiming at legal empowerment may be controversial or divisive in African countries.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/fjds20/current
Additional Information:	© 2018 UNU-WIDER
Divisions:	International Development Government
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races K Law > K Law (General)
Date Deposited:	16 Apr 2018 15:32
Last Modified:	08 Nov 2024 04:15
Projects:	ES/P008038/1
Funders:	International Inequalities Institute, Suntory and Toyota International Centers for Economics and Related Disciplines, UK ESRC grant to the LSE Centre for the Study of Public Authority in Africa (CPAID)
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/87485

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