Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-cnmwb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T11:14:51.597Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Inventing Market Property: The Land Courts of Papua New Guinea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Robert D. Cooter
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article reports field research on Papua New Guinea's land courts, which decide property disputes in customary law. Customary law did not contemplate exchange of real property outside the kin group. Changing conditions have created an irresistible pressure for markets in land, which require extending law to encompass exchange with outsiders. The freehold solution is to give absolute, unitary ownership over land to individuals and end the kin group's role in resource allocation. Alternatively, the kin group can be reconstituted as a cooperative with ownership rights. If imposed by legislative fiat, either of these solutions will disrupt the customary economy by displacing its incentive system. A better solution allows custom to evolve and modernize itself through the common law process.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , 1991 , pp. 759 - 801
Copyright
Copyright © 1991 by The Law and Society Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

My research in Papua New Guinea was sponsored by the Institute of National Affairs in Port Moresby and financed by a grant from the Asia Foundation. I would like to thank Leonard Joy, Richard Giddings, John and Jocelyn Millett, Tony Power, and Michael Trebilcock for help in organizing my trip. I am grateful to Jeremy Waldron and Wolfgang Fikentscher for useful discussions about theories of property and to Saul Levmore, Robert Scott, and Charles Goetz for discussions of relational contracting. My interest in this topic was partly inspired by Michael Trebilcock's (1984) “Communal Property Rights: The Papua New Guinea Experience.” Useful comments were received from members of the Yale Workshop in Legal Theory, the University of Virginia Law Faculty Colloquium, the University of Pennsylvania's Law and Economics seminar, Peter Larmour, and the reviewers of this journal. Robert Mullen assisted with the manuscript's preparation.

References

References

ARROW, Kenneth J. (1951) Social Choice and Individual Values. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
ATSIR, R. T. (ed.), Should There Be Another Approach to the Employment of the Business Groups Philosophy (Business Group Act. Cap. 144, and Land Group Act. Cap. 147) for the Productive Economic Engagement of Customary Land in PNG? Seminar Report 1/87, Department of Surveying and Land Studies, Papua New Guinea University of Technology, June.Google Scholar
AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY (1971) Land Tenure and Economic Development: Problems and Policies in Papua–New Guinea and Kenya. New Guinea Research Bulletin No. 40, Australian National University, March.Google Scholar
BARNETT, Randy (1986) “A Consent Theory of Contract,” 86 Columbia Law Review 269.Google Scholar
BAYNE, Peter (1980) “The Law and Its Administration in Towns in Papua New Guinea,” in Jackson et al. 1980 (which see).Google Scholar
BLACK, Duncan (1958) Theory of Committees and Elections. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
BREDMEYER, T. (1974) “The Kenyan Model,” in Sack 1974 (which see).Google Scholar
CARRAD, Bruce, David, LEA, and Kundapau, TALYAGA (1982) “Blood Is the Argument,” in Enga Yaaka Lasemana, Vol. 3: Enga: Foundations for Development. Arunidale, NSW: Department of Geography, University of New England.Google Scholar
CLIFFORD, William, Louise, MORAUTA, and Barry, STUART (1984) Law and Order in Papua New Guinea, Vol. 1, Report and Recommendations. INA/IASER Report. Port Moresby: Institute of National Affairs.Google Scholar
COLQUHOUN-KERR, Andrew, and A. L., LAKAU (1983) “Land Tenure and Land Dispute Settlement in Enga,” 11 Melanesian Law Journal 59.Google Scholar
COOTER, Robert (1989a) “Inventing Property: Economic Theories of Market Property Applied to Papua New Guinea.” Olin Foundation Working Paper 88-5, University of Virginia.Google Scholar
COOTER, Robert (1989b) Issues in Customary Land Law. Institute of National Affairs Discussion Paper No. 39, August 1989, Institute of National Affairs, Port Moresby.Google Scholar
COOTER, Robert, and Thomas, ULEN (1988) “Efficiency of the Common Law Process,” in R. Cooter and T. Ulen, Law and Economics. New York: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
CROCOMBE, Ron G. (1974) “The Niue Alternative Problem of Choice,” in Sack 1974 (which see).Google Scholar
CROCOMBE, Ron, and Robin, HIDE (1971) “New Guinea: Unity In Diversity,” in Crocombe, R. (ed.), Land Tenure in the Pacific. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
DICKSON, W. L. (1986) “An Introduction to Land Registration.” Papua New Guinea University of Technology, Department of Surveying and Land Studies, May.Google Scholar
EISENBERG, Melvin A. (1982) “The Bargain Principle and Its Limits,” 95 Harvard Law Review 741.Google Scholar
ELLICKSON, Robert (1986) “Of Coase and Cattle: Dispute Resolution among Neighbors in Shasta County,” 38 Stanford Law Review 623.Google Scholar
ELLICKSON, Robert (1991) Order without Law: How Neighbors Settle Disputes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FINGLETON, J. (1981) “Customary Land Registration as an Instrument of Social Change.” Canberra: Australian National University, Department of Law.Google Scholar
FINGLETON, J. (1982) “Land Policy in Papua New Guinea,” in Weisbrot et al. 1982 (which see).Google Scholar
FRIENDS COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL LEGISLATION (1988) “Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act Amendments: How the Debate Ended,” Indian Report, I-29, Spring, 5.Google Scholar
GIDDINGS, Rick (1980a) “After ‘Komanda’: Implications for Land Dispute Settlement in Enga Province,” Enga Integrated Rural Development Project, Dec.Google Scholar
GIDDINGS, Rick (1980b) “Land Dispute Settlement in Enga: Where to From Here?” Enga Integrated Rural Development Project, May.Google Scholar
GLUCKMAN, Max (1965) “The Importance of Obligation in Contract,” in The Ideas in Barotse Jurisprudence. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
GOLDRING, John (1978) The Constitution of Papua New Guinea: A Study in Legal Nationalism. Sydney: Law Book Co.Google Scholar
GOLDTHORPE, C. C. (1985) “Plantation Agriculture in Papua New Guinea” I.N.A. Discussion Paper No. 19, Port Moresby.Google Scholar
GOLSON, Jack (1977) “No Room at the Top: Agricultural Intensification in the New Guinea Highlands,” in Allen, J., Golson, J., and Jones, R. (eds.), Sunda and Sahul: Prehistoric Studies in Southeast Asia, Melanesia and Australia. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
GOODMAN, GOODMAN Raymond Charles, and David, MORAWETZ (1985) The Economy of Papua New Guinea: An Independent Review. Pacific Policy Papers. Canberra: Development Studies Centre, Australian National University.Google Scholar
GORDON, Robert J., and Mervyn J., MEGGITT (1985) Law and Order in the New Guinea Highlands: Encounters with Enga. Hanover: University of Vermont Press of New England.Google Scholar
GREY, Thomas C. (1980) “The Disintegration of Property,” in Pennock, R. and Chapman, J. W. (eds.), Property (Nomos XXII). New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
HARRIS, Marvin (1968) The Rise of Anthropological Theory. New York: Crowell.Google Scholar
HAYNES, C. E. P. (1986) “Compulsory Acquisition,” in Land Law and Land Policy in Papua New Guinea: Text, Cases and Materials. Port Moresby: University of Papua New Guinea Printery, 1986).Google Scholar
HIDE, R. (1973) The Land Titles Commission in Chimbu: An Analysis of Colonial Land Law and Practice, 1933–68. New Guinea Research Bulletin No. 50, Australian National University. Canberra: Australian National Unviersity.Google Scholar
HOBBES, Thomas (1962) Leviathan, ed. M. Oakeshott. New York: Collier Books.Google Scholar
HOGBIN, Ian (1978) The Leaders and the Led: Social Control in Wogeo, New Guinea. Carlton: Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
HOGBIN, Ian, and Peter, LAWRENCE (1967) Studies in New Guinea Land Tenure. Sidney: Sydney University Press.Google Scholar
IAMO, Wari (1980) “Customary Dispute Settlement in Urban Areas,” in Jackson et al. 1980 (which see).Google Scholar
JACKSON, Richard, with John, ODONGO and Patrick, BATHO (eds.), Urbanization and Its Problems in Papua New Guinea. Proceedings of the 1979 Waigani Seminar on Urbanization. Port Moresby: University of Papua New Guinea.Google Scholar
JAMES, R. W. (1983) “Introduction to the Laws Governing the Ownership of Land in Papua New Guinea,” in “Land Tenure in Papua New Guinea.” Port Moresby.Google Scholar
JAMES, R. W. (1985) “Land Law and Policy in Papua New Guinea.” Monograph No. 5, 1985. Port Moresby: Papua New Guinea Law Reform Commission.Google Scholar
JAMES, R. W. (1985) Land Law and Policy in Papua New Guinea. Port Moresby: Papua New Guinea Law Reform Commission.Google Scholar
JOHNSON, Patricia Lyons (1988) “Women and Development: A Highland New Guinea Example,” 16 Human Ecology 105.Google Scholar
KITCH, Edmund (1986) “Law and the Economic Order,” in Lipson, L. and Wheeler, S. (eds.), Law and the Social Sciences. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
KOCH, Klaus-Friedrich (1974) War and Peace in Jalerno—The Management of Conflict in Highland New Guinea. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
KOTTAK, Conrad Phillip (1987) “Kinship and Descent,” in Cultural Anthropology. 4th ed. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
LARMOUR, Peter (1986) “Customary Land Registration in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.” Land Studies Centre Occasional Paper 86/4, University of Papua New Guinea.Google Scholar
LIPUMA, Edward (1988) The Gift of Kinship: Structure and Practice in Marine Social Organization. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
LLEWELLYN, K. N., and E. Adamson, HOEBEL (1941) The Cheyenne Way: Conflict and Case Law in Primimtive Jurisprudence. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
LOCKE, John (1961) “Of Property,” ch. 5 of The Second Treatise of Civil Government, in Cook, T. I. (ed.), Two Treatises of Government. New York: Hafner.Google Scholar
LOUNSBURY, Floyd G. (1964) “A Formal Account of the Crow- and Omaha-Type Kinship Terminologies,” in Goodenough, W. H. (ed.), Explorations in Cultural Anthropology. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
MATTEI, Hugo (n.d.) “Socialist and Non Socialist Approaches to Land Law in Africa: Continuity and Change in Somalia and Elsewhere.” Universita di Trento.Google Scholar
McCLOSKEY, D. N. (1975a) “The Economics of Enclosure,” in Parker and Jones 1975 (which see).Google Scholar
McCLOSKEY, D. N. (1975b) “The Persistence of English Common Fields,” in Parker and Jones 1975 (which see).Google Scholar
McCLOSKEY, D. N. (1976) “English Open Fields as Behavior towards Risk,” in Uselding, P. (ed.), 1 Research in Economic History: An Annual Compilation.Google Scholar
McCLOSKEY, D. N. (1986) “The Open Fields of England: Rent, Risk, and the Rate of Interest, 1300–1815.” Presented to American Economic Association meetings, New Orleans, Dec.Google Scholar
McKILLOP, R. (1989) “Land Mobilisation in the Highlands,” in Larmour, P. (ed.), Customary Land Tenure: Registration and Decentralisation in Papua New Guinea. Monograph 20, Papua New Guinea Institute of Applied Social and Economic Research. Port Moresby: the Institute.Google Scholar
MEGGETT, M. J. (1977) Blood Is the Argument: Warfare among Mae Enga Tribesmen of Papua New Guinea. Palo Alto, CA.: Mayfield Publishing Co.Google Scholar
MIRIUNG, Theodore (1987) “Bwagoia Township,” Land Title Commission Application No. 1987/73 (13 July 1987).Google Scholar
NADER, Laura, and June, STARR (1973) “Is Equity Universal?” in Newman, R. A. (ed.), Equity in the World's Legal Systems: A Comparative Study. Brussels: Establissements Emile Bruylant.Google Scholar
NAROKOBI, Bernard (1986) “In Search of a Melanesian Jurisprudence,” in Sack, P. and Minchin, E. (eds.), Legal Pluralism: Proceedings of the Canberra Law Workshop VII. Canberra: Law Department, Australian National University.Google Scholar
NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS FUND (1987) “Highlights of Indian Legislation in the 99th Congress: 1991 Legislation,” 12 NARF Legal Review 1.Google Scholar
NILLES, John (1974) “Law Enforcement or Land Reforms,” in Sack 1974 (which see).Google Scholar
NORWOOD, Hugh (1984) Port Moresby: Urban Villages and Squatter Areas—An Analysis of the Urban Villages and Squatter Areas of the City of Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. [Port Moresby?]: University of PNG Press.Google Scholar
NOWAK, John, Ronald, ROTUNDA, and J. Nelson, YOUNG, (1986) “State Involvement in Ecclesiastical Disputes,” in Constitutional Law. 3d ed. (St. Paul, MN: West.Google Scholar
NOZICK, Robert (1974) Anarchy, State, and Utopia. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
ONGKA (1979) Ongka: A Self Account by a New Guinea Big-Man, trans. Strathern, A.. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
O'SULLIVAN, C. (1986) Tradition and Law in Papua New Guinea: An Annotated and Selected Bibliography. Canberra: Australian National University.Google Scholar
PALIWALA, Abdul (1982) “Law and Order in the Village: The Village Courts,” in Weisbrot et al. (which see).Google Scholar
PAPUA NEW GUINEA (1973) “Constitutional Planning Committee, Final Report.” Ch 2, para. 98.Google Scholar
PAPUA NEW GUINEA (1985) Department of Primary Industry 1985b, Table 4.Google Scholar
PAPUA NEW GUINEA (1980) Papua New Guinea Handbook.Google Scholar
PAPUA NEW GUINEA NATIONAL PLANNING OFFICE (1984) “Medium Term Development Strategy: Land Policy.” Waigani, PNG: National Planning Office.Google Scholar
PAPUA NEW GUINEA TASK FORCE ON CUSTOMARY LAND ISSUES (1983) Report (Presented to Minister for Lands, 1983), March.Google Scholar
PARKER, William N., and Eric L., JONES (eds.) (1975) European Peasants and Their Markets: Essays in Agrarian Economic History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
PINDA, Fr. Gabriel Pinda, “The Melanesian Mentality and General Attitudes Towards Government Goods and Services in the Rural Communities,” in Atsir, R. T. (ed.), Should There Be Another Approach to the Employment of the Business Groups Philosophy (Business Group Act. Ca. 144, and Land Group Act. Cap. 147) for the Productive Economic Engagement of Customary land in PNG? Seminar Report 1/87, Department of Surveying and Land Studies, Papua New Guinea University of Technology, June.Google Scholar
POTTER, Michelle (1973) Traditional Law in Papua New Guinea: An Annotated and Selected Bibliography. Canberra: Australian National University.Google Scholar
POSPISIL, Leopold (1958) Kapauku Papuans and Their Law. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
ROEBUCK, Derek, SRIVASTAVA, Dhirenabra K., and John, NONGGARR (1984) The Context of Contract in Papua New Guinea. Waigani: University of PNG Press.Google Scholar
SACK, Peter G. (1973) Land between Two Laws: Early European Land Acquisitions. Canberra: Australian National University.Google Scholar
SACK, Peter G. (ed.) (1974) Problem of Choice: Land in Papua New Guinea's Future. Canberra: Australian National University Press.Google Scholar
SCAGLION, Richard (1979) “Formal and Informal Operations of a Village Court in Maprik,” 7(1 & 2) Melanesian Law Journal 116.Google Scholar
SCAGLION, Richard (ed.) (1983) Customary Law in Papua New Guinea: A Melanesian View. Law Reform Commission of Papua New Guinea, Monograph No. 2. Port Moresby: Law Reform Commission of Papua New Guinea.Google Scholar
SORENSON, E. Richard (1972) “Socio-ecological Change among the Fore of New Guinea,” 13 Current Anthropology 349.Google Scholar
SORENSON, E. Richard (1976) The Edge of the Forest: Land Childhood and Change in a New Guinea Protoagricultural Society. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
SORENSON, Richard, and Peter, KENMORE (1974) “Proto-agricultural Movement in the Eastern Highland of New Guinea,” 15 Current Anthropology 67.Google Scholar
TELSOR, Lester (1978) Economic Theory and the Core. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
TREBILCOCK, Michael (1983) “Customary Land Law Reform in Papua New Guinea: Law, Economics and Property Rights in a Traditional Culture,” 39 Adelaide Law Review 191.Google Scholar
TREBILCOCK, Michael (1984) “Communal Property Rights: The Papua New Guinea Experience,” 34 University of Toronto Law Journal 377.Google Scholar
TREBILCOCK, Michael, and Jack L., KNETSCH (1981) “Land and Economic Development in Papua New Guinea,” 9 Melanesian Law Journal 102.Google Scholar
WALSH, B. J. (1985) “The Demography of Squatter Settlements in Lae, Papua New Guinea.” University of Technology, Department of Surveying and Land Studies, Nov.Google Scholar
WALSH, Crosbie (1987) Migration and Urbanization in Papua New Guinea: The 1980 Census. National Census, Research Monograph No. 5. Port Moresby: National Statistical Office, Feb.Google Scholar
WEISBROT, David, Abdul, PALIWALA, and Akilagpa, SAWYERR (eds.) (1982) Law and Social Change in Papua New Guinea. London: Butterworths.Google Scholar
WESTERMARK, George (1986) “Court Is an Arrow: Legal Pluralism in Papua New Guinea,” 25 Ethnology 131.Google Scholar
WESTERMARK, George (Forthcoming) “Controlling Custom: Ideology and Pluralism in the Papua New Guinea Village Courts,” 15 Legal Studies Forum.Google Scholar
WILMSEN, Edwin N. (1989) “Those Who Have Each Other: San Relations to Land,” in Wilmsen, E. N. (ed.), We Are Here: Politics of Aboriginal Land Tenure. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Statutes Cited

East Sepik Province Land Registration Act.Google Scholar
Land Act, Independent State of Papua New Guinea, Chapter No. 185.Google Scholar
Land Disputes Settlement Act, Independent State of Papua New Guinea, Chapter No. 45.Google Scholar
Land (Tenure Conversion) Act of 1963, Independent State of Papua New Guinea.Google Scholar
Land (Tenure Conversion) Act of 1964, Independent State of Papua New Guinea.Google Scholar
Land (Tenure Conversion Amendment) Act of 1987, Independent State of Papua New Guinea Chapter No. 45.Google Scholar

Cases Cited

Published Cases.Google Scholar
Auguste Olei v. Provincial Land Court at Port Moresby, 1984 P.N.G.L.R. In the Matter of Application for Review of a Decision … of a District Land Court of the Land Known as Komonotoa between Ningalimbi No. 2 and Ilahita No. 3 Clans, O.S. No. 24, 1987.Google Scholar
Re Fisherman's Island, 1979 P.N.G.L.R.Google Scholar
State v. Giddings, 1981 P.N.G.L.R.Google Scholar
Unpublished Cases (Cases Listed Here Are Printed in Cooter 1989b; page numbers in brackets refer to that volume).Google Scholar
Dango Mondo of Bowai'kane Subclan and Korugl Goi of Awa'kane Subclan, Kundiawa District Land Court, 24 Nov. 1987, R. J. Giddings presiding. [pp. 58–59].Google Scholar
Enos Malakit and Jonah Tourai v. Peter Tobung Concerning the Land called Vunateten, Local Land Court at Rabaul, 27 July 1987. [pp. 80–81].Google Scholar
Genaboru-Kibiso and Paul Lora Boiyango, Local Land Court near Lindima Village, 20 Dec. 1978, R. J. Giddings presiding. [pp. %63–67].Google Scholar
Hogeteru et al., Local Land Court at Kami, 19 Jan. 1978, R. J. Giddings, magistrate. [pp. %70–72].Google Scholar
Ipao of Okiyufa and Apele of Masilakaiyufa, Local Land Court at Goroka, 28 Feb. 1985. [pp. %92–93].Google Scholar
Kefamo and Nagamiufa, Local Land Court at Goroka, 18 Dec. 1987, Gesling presiding. [pp. %94–96].Google Scholar
Liviko-Karafa and Namori-Sibite, Local Land Court at Kapakamari, 12 Jan. 1977. [pp. %90–91].Google Scholar
Mundua Imbo and Dambayagl Endemongo, District Land Court at Kundiawa, 15 Feb. 1982, G. C. Lapthorne presiding. [pp. %67–69].Google Scholar
Mundua Imbo and Dambayagl Endemongo, Local Land Court at Goroka, 19 March 1985, magistrate Phillip Takori. [pp. %83–85].Google Scholar
Mundua Imbo and Dambayagl Endemongo Concerning the Land Gagl, Local Land Court at Kerowagi, 17 June 1983, S. Antonio presiding. [pp. %83–84].Google Scholar
Negius Balanguan and Michael Varting, Local Land Court at Rabaul, 5 Aug. 1986, M.R. Golu presiding. [pp. %61–63].Google Scholar
Ningalimbi No. 2 and Ilahita No. 3 Clans v. Mamlimbi Clan, National Court of Justice, Wewak, 24 & 25 Feb. 1988, T. Bredmeyer presiding. [pp. %96–99].Google Scholar
Notofana and Kofika Clans, Local Land Court at Goroka, 26 Nov. 1984, Phillip Takori presiding. [pp. %81–82].Google Scholar
Tobernat Tokuna and Ia Bore Maria Concerning the Land Called Rakakava of Tavuiliu, Local Land Court at Rabaul, 1982. [pp. %80–81].Google Scholar
Tobuka and Anglimka, Customary Groups, Provincial Land Court at Minj, 12 June 1986. [pp. %86–90].Google Scholar