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Thomson, Frances (2020) 'Expropriations of private property for economic 'development’ in the United States: re-thinking the titling and Rule of Law solutions to land grabs in the Global South.' Estudios Socio-Jurídicos, 22 (2). pp. 1-31.

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Abstract

Mainstream discourses tend to treat land dispossession as a ‘developing’ country problem that arises due to weak/corrupt legal systems and inadequate property institutions. This article unsettles such discourses by examining expropriations for economic ‘development’ in the United States —a country typically deemed to have strong property institutions and a strong rule of law. Drawing on various examples, I propose that expropriation in the us is neither rigorously conditional nor particularly exceptional. While most ‘takings’ laws are supposed to restrict the State’s power, this restriction hinges on the definition of public use, purpose, necessity, or interest. And in many countries, including the us, these concepts are now defined broadly and vaguely so as to include private for-profit projects. Ultimately, the contents, interpretation, and application of the law are subject to social and political struggles; this point is habitually overlooked in the rule of law ‘solutions’ to land grabbing. For these reasons, titling/registration programs and policies aimed at strengthening the rule of law, even if successful, are likely to transform rather than ‘solve’ dispossession in the global South.

Item Type: Journal Article
Keywords: expropriation, private property, dispossession, land grabbing, United States
SOAS Departments & Centres: Departments and Subunits > Department of Development Studies
Subjects: K Law > K Law (General)
H Social Sciences
J Political Science
ISSN: 01240579
Copyright Statement: This work is under an international license Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0. The authors retain the copyright and grant the journal the right to be the first publication of the work as well as licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the authorship of the work and the initial publication in this magazine. Under the Non-Commercial Attribution license (CC BY-NC 4.0) The work can be shared, copied, distributed, performed and publicly communicated and derived works made, as long as the author's credits are acknowledged.
DOI (Digital Object Identifier): https://doi.org/10.12804/revistas.urosario.edu.co/sociojuridicos/a.7872
Date Deposited: 23 Sep 2020 08:32
URI: https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/33465
Funders: Economic and Social Research Council

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