The law of the land

Abstract

Common notions about the source of communal land conflict in Africa have long explained it as growing out of conditions of environmental scarcity. This article argues instead that the institutional structure of the legal system is central to understanding which countries are prone to experience communal land conflict. When competing customary and modern jurisdictions coexist in countries inhabited by mixed identity groups, the conflicting sources of legal authority lead to insecurity about which source of law will prevail. Because the source of law is contested, conflict parties cannot trust the legal system to predictably adjudicate disputes, which encourages the use of extrajudicial vigilante measures. Using new data on communal violence in West Africa, this argument is examined for the period 1990-2009. The results show that in countries where competing jurisdictions exist, communal land conflict is 200-350% more likely. These findings suggest that researchers should consider the role of legal institutions and processes in relation to social unrest and collective violence.

Decolonising Conservation Policy: How Colonial Land and Conservation Ideologies Persist and Perpetuate Indigenous Injustices at the Expense of the Environment

“…They also result in overlapping and conflicting land rights with respect to the same territories [46]. This has been a key driver of poverty, inequality and conflict [25,47]. The supremacy placed on individual ownership, and the corresponding nonrecognition of traditional or customary land tenure, has also contributed to deforestation, biodiversity loss and other forms of environmental destruction [41,48,49].…”

Polygynous Neighbors, Excess Men, and Intergroup Conflict in Rural Africa

“…In addition to our contribution to the literature on the long-term effects of historical institutions, we provide a substantially refined theoretical argument and improved empirical test to the literature on family institutions and violent conflict, an aspect that has not received adequate attention. Additionally, we complement the literature on local-level and communal conflicts (e.g., Eck 2014; Fjelde and von Uexkull 2012; Varshney 2003; Tajima 2013; Fearon and Laitin 2000).…”

Institutions and Pastoralist Conflicts in Africa: A Conceptual Framework

“…A third dilemma concerns the plurality of meanings attached to institutions for conflict management, which is largely a by-product of institutional change and institutional pluralism. Here also, Eck's (2014) study on land tenure in West African countries concludes that "when there are competing jurisdictions with overlapping mandates, the legitimacy of the system is undermined and the resultant incentive structure for people to settle disputes extrajudicially through the use of vigilante measures is enhanced" (p. 451). Hence, institutions regulating the commons use in (agro)pastoralist communities could have outcomes that give some actors agency to alter or maintain the national and local policies to their benefit.…”