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Abstract
Mozambique's 1997 Land Law is an extremely important example of innovative
land law reform in Africa. The Law and its accompanying regulations
(including the so-called Technical Annex for the delimitation of community
land) together represent a significant and promising effort to integrate
customary and formal legal frameworks, to secure land rights for
communities, families and individuals, and to stimulate development in
rural Mozambique.
While providing a guide to the principle features of this legislative
package, the unique contribution of Tanner's article is its in-depth
analysis of the process by which the law and regulations were developed.
According to Tanner, Mozambique's new land law emerged from an unparalleled
process of dialogue and collaboration between government, civil society and
technical specialists. First and foremost, this process was based on a
thorough analysis of the social and economic norms and practices that
dominate land access and management. As such, it was an imaginative and
concerted attempt to design a legal framework resting on sound sociological
foundations and accurately reflecting societal aspirations. The result,
Tanner argues, is a modern law in which legal concepts and mechanisms are
tailored to the underlying realities of land and society in Mozambique.
Tanner presents a detailed description of the making of this law, observed
from his vantage point over a number of years as a technical advisor in
Mozambique for FAO's Land Tenure Service. He places the process within its
historical, political and sociological context, and highlights important
lessons that the process holds for other countries committed to reforming
land or other natural resource laws. He concludes with an assessment of
the challenges that Mozambique now faces in implementing the law and making
its promise a reality.
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