Essays In African Land Law

This book is a collection of essays honouring and engaging with the work of the late Professor Patrick McAuslan. It is a collection that narrates, analyses and critiques McAuslan’s contributions, as well as offering substantive perspectives on how his work has impacted the legal fields in which he was involved: including those of land law, urban planning law and policy, land use and participation in developing countries, democratic constitutionalism, and legal education. The essays present McAuslan’s contributions in the contexts in which they emerged, and according to both the circumstances and motivations that shaped them, as well as the challenges they encountered. It thus provides an ideal point of engagement for scholars, students and policy makers that have already interacted with McAuslan’s ideas and work, or who have yet to do so.

This title was first published in 2003. Bringing together the two fields of land reform and law, this volume examines the role the law and lawyers can, should, and do play in developing countries in the evolution of land policies, in land tenure reform, and in the reform of land use and urban planning. Providing both a theoretical and practical perspective it discusses the role of law in both urban land reform, concentrating on reforms in land use and town and country planning law and general national land reform, looking at specific case studies and at more general themes. It provides a coherent set of ideas and philosophies about land reform through the medium of law, which have been developed through reflection and action over a considerable period of time.