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Towards a Definition of “Absolute Ownership”: II

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

S. R. Simpson
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Extract

As I read Dr. Allott's article “Towards a definition of Absolute Ownership” I felt increasing dismay because it postulates and makes appear immensely difficult, a problem which in actual working practice barely exists at all. For over sixty years Settlement Officers in the Sudan have been successfully determining ownership without the help of any definition, and in Kenya, during the last five years, the ownership of over a million plots has similarly been decided by committees. Even in West Africa, where there has been no process of systematic adjudication, ownership has been determined in over three thousand cases in Lagos, and ownership is not defined. Indeed I am not familiar with any statute anywhere which does define it.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of African Law , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1961 , pp. 145 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1961

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References

2 [1961] J.A.L. 99.

3 The British Solomon Isles Land and Titles Regulation, 1959, provides that an “owner” in relation to native customary land, means the person or persons who is or are, according to current native usage, regarded as the owner or owners of the land”. This cannot be called a definition of “owner”; indeed it assumes that its meaning is understood.

page 146 note 1 As Dr. Allott points out there is little significance in adding “absolute” to “ownership”. We cannot really have anything “whiter” than “white”—except in advertisements for detergents!

page 146 note 2 The Law of Real Property, 2nd edn., p. 68.

page 146 note 3 Modern Red Property, 7th edn., p. 27.