1: Southern African Development Community Land Issues

This book constitutes Volume I of a set of two Volumes. Volume I attempts a holistic inter-disciplinary evaluation of the legitimacy of colonial and emergent post-colonial rule property rights in affected States of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in light of intensifying litigation in national courts, the SADC Tribunal, and more recently the Washington based International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) regarding counter claims to title to property. Cultural, economic and political drivers at the core of SADC land issues are examined for their significance and potential to contribute to the discovery of a new, sustainable land relations policy that guarantees social justice in the distribution of all the advantages and disadvantages relating to the allocation and use of land. The book shows that persistent systematic administrative failures by pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial authorities have made for a very complex challenge that requires Solomonic tools that neither the Courts alone, nor human rights centric morality alone could resolutely attend. Therefore, the book recommends a sophisticated systematic new approach to SADC land issues. That approach is developed in Volume II of this series: Re-conceiving Property Rights in the new millennium - Towards a New Sustainable Land Relations Policy.

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