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Development practice over recent years in much of Africa prioritized formalization of land policies deemed to enhance better handling and use of land as an asset for social development. Following this trend, land reform policy in Ghana was based on a pluralistic legal system in which both the customary land tenure system and the statutory system of land ownership and control co-exist by law. The primary research question for this study was the following: What implications emerge when customary land tenure system and the statutory system of land ownership and control co-exist in law? The study discussed the prospects and challenges of land title registration and the meaning of the new organizing concept in land ownership and administration among the people of Dagbon in the northern region of Ghana. The principal aim of the study was to assess the challenges of the implementation of a modern land registration system over a deeply traditional one. A qualitative research methodology was used and included qualitative descriptive analysis. This descriptive-analytical study was carried out to investigate opinions on the implications of the merger and preferred options for redress of any systemic challenges. It employed Focused Group Discussions (FGDs) to supplement in-depth interviews. Interviews were conducted among 40 key participants within formal and informal institutions including officials from both the Land Commission and Town and Country Planning Departments. Purposeful sampling was employed, and an interview guide was developed and used for collecting the data. Data were analyzed using a thematic approach. The results showed that in this structural reform, the &lsquo, allodial title&rsquo, holder was much more trusted for tenure security because of the traditional legitimacy of the King as the sole owner and controller of land. The title registration system therefore principally served the secondary purpose as additional security. The findings indicate that in the circumstance where the law was seen as pliable, the policy engendered blurred and confusing effects that deepened the sense of ambiguity and outcomes were sometimes contradictory. We argued that the crossroads presented challenges that were novel and engendered innovative thinking for more appropriate solutions. The study revealed that policy reforms must be tailor-made to the physical, social, cultural and economic settings.

There is a well-known debate about the role of institutions in explaining the long-term development of countries. We believe there is value-added to consider the institutions hypothesis at the micro level within a country to analyze the exact transmission channels linking endogenous institutional change to development outcomes. Given the central importance of agricultural productivity improvements for initiating the process of economic development, we focus on the transmission mechanisms that lead to the emergence of institutions relevant for agricultural development, thereby incorporating insights from the literatures on demographic influences of institutional change, induced innovations, as well as the central role of land rights in our analysis. Our main argument is that in conditions of relative land abundance, geographic factors influence rural-rural migration flows to geographically well-endowed regions which in turn give rise to migration-induced land scarcity. Land scarcity in turn, provides incentives to formalize landownership. Eventually, formalized land rights increase investment in land and enhance the adoption of new and better technologies promoting agricultural growth and economic development. We provide empirical evidence for this hypothesis using longitudinal village and household survey data from Indonesia.

This thesis argues that the feudal doctrine of tenure, as it exists in the Commonwealth jurisdictions of Australia, Canada and New Zealand, should be abolished in favour of an allodial land system. The feudal doctrine of tenure is a derivation of English history which had no relevance to colonial cultures where indigenous existence was an actuality. The tendency of colonial jurists to ignore the existence of indigenous inhabitants resulted in the application of a land system which was wholly inappropriate for the regulation of indigenous and non-indigenous land interests. As the courts increasingly recognise the validity of indigenous title, some of the fundamental problems with feudal tenure have become more apparent. The fact that feudal tenure has been largely utilised as a device for assuming absolute Crown sovereignty over all land, thereby denying the validity of indigenous title, has meant that it has never had a bi-cultural focus. It is argued that an allodial system, based broadly on the tenets of the model introduced during the republican revolution within the United States, but with significant legislative regulation, would provide a much more responsive and culturally neutral system. The removal of the sovereignty discourse from the land framework would allow land interests to develop according to their individual cultural origins. This would create an equitable and balanced land system better equipped to embrace the developments of contemporary common law jurisprudence.

This book provides a systematic and comprehensive account of the law relating to buyers and sellers of freehold land in Queensland. It analyses relevant clauses of the standard contracts in common use and the plethora of court decisions relating to the area.Its contents comprise a full transactional analysis of a conveyance from negotiation by a real estate agent through to completion. In addition, it contains chapters on special conditions, remedies, GST and stamp duty provisions.

Land Titles Law and Practice provides an extensive reference guide to the Land Title Act 1994 Qld and associated practice. It includes a comprehensive examination of the law relating to the Land Title Act 1994 Qld and the law of land titles in Queensland.

This article outlines a transaction cost theory of title insurance and analyses the role it plays in countries with recording and registration of land titles. Title insurance indemnifies real estate right holders for losses caused by pre-existing title defects that are unknown when the policy is issued. It emerged to complement the errors and omissions insurance of professionals examining title quality. Poor organization of public records led title insurers in the USA to integrate title examination and settlement services. Their residual claimant status motivates insurers to screen, cure and avoid title defects. Firms introducing title insurance abroad produce little information on title quality, however. Their policies are instead issued on a casualty basis, complementing and enforcing the professional liability of conveyancers. Future development in markets with land registration is uncertain because of adverse selection, competitive reactions from established conveyancers and the ability of larger banks to self-insure title risks.