Re-conceiving Property Rights in the New Millennium: Towards a New Sustainable Land Relations Policy

This book constitutes Volume II of a set of two Volumes. Volume II considers the possibility of a new, sustainable land relations policy for Southern African Development Community States (SADC) that are currently mired up in land disputes that have become subject of domestic, regional and international tribunals, including the SADC Tribunal and the Washington based International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). It shows that land relations in the SADC have always been, and will perhaps remain a matter for constitutional regulation. Because constitutional laws defer to no other laws except by constitutional design, legal contests appear to be the least likely means by which these disputes will eventually be settled in the sub-region. Only human rights inspired policies that respond to the call for social justice by acknowledging both the current and the underlying contexts to the disputes, and also to the developmental aspirations of these States hold the most potential to resolve these disputes. The book recommends efficient pedagogical counter-apartheid-rule psychological distortions regarding the significance of human dignity (PECAPDISH) as a pre-requisite and corollary to the dismantling of the salient physical legacy of apartheid-rule in affected SADC States. The book shows that PECAPDISH’s potential and benefits would be enormous.

Ben Chigara is Professor of International Laws at Brunel University, UK.