Agrarian change and the evolution of law

This research lies at the intersection of the anthropology and the theory of law. Agricultural change and the control of agricultural land are a source of conflict worldwide. Small farmers and local communities are losing out to the power of money and agribusiness. Recent legal reforms, particularly in land law, play a complex role in these developments, as they are designed to better resolve conflicts, but also enable the changes that cause them.  These conflicts are often difficult to resolve. Because formal law does not provide a solution to these conflicts, a large proportion of them remain unresolved or are resolved informally. My research looks at how this works in practice in two countries: Cambodia and Rwanda. Although the two countries are different, similar land laws were introduced in the 1990s with the support of the international community. Informal dispute resolution has also been given an important role in increasing access to justice.   I have observed that in both countries the existing formal law does not sufficiently enable people to find good answers to the legal questions at stake. In informal dispute resolution, although mediation is the prescribed method, people seek a just solution and strive for good judgment. In the comparative analysis, I found that the differences between legitimation strategies in formal law and informal dispute resolution are related to different perceptions of time. This leads to a critique of the current distinction between formal and informal law, in which the idea of formal law is closely tied to Western perceptions of time and informal dispute resolution is framed as mediation. Mediation can be seen as 'presentism': it assumes that the outcome of the process is relevant only in the here and now and for the parties themselves. It does not contribute to the creation or modification of rules.  I criticise this framework because it isolates law and dispute resolution from each other and thwarts the evolution of law through its application in dispute resolution. It makes law too rigid. This is undesirable in the context of donor funded legal reform in developing countries with all the challenges and unaddressed normative questions, such as those that are discussed in the case studies. This ultimately leads to fundamental questions about the relationship between law and time, and whether different conceptions of time and legitimation strategies should be able to affect the formation of law over time.

Dissertation: https://hdl.handle.net/11370/b0b9bf4f-d3a4-4420-8883-c3c96c24d870