Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T13:29:44.606Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rules of Possession Revisited: Property and the Problem of Social Order

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Daniel Fitzpatrick  and
Susana Barnes
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article explores two propositions in the literature on rules of possession. The first is that rules of first possession may form the basis for “spontaneous order.” The article argues that this Hayekian proposition must take into account the relationship between property and authority, including the potential for social disorder when competition for possession combines with competition for public authority. The second is that simple rules of possession provide a baseline response to the problem of social order because of the information costs of property in a large audience context. The article argues that this proposition must take into account correlations between interpretive complexity in rules of possession and the reproduction of authority and social order in circumstances of threatened social disorder. The analysis highlights the significance of authority and enforcement for the design of rules of possession and their relationship with social order.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , Winter 2014 , pp. 127 - 151
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 2014 

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.)

References

References

Alston, Lee, Harris, Edwyna, and Mueller, Bernardo 2009. De facto and De jure Property Rights: Land Settlement and Land Conflict on the Australian, Brazilian and U.S. Frontiers. NBER Working Paper 15264.Google Scholar
Alston, Lee, Libecap, Gary, and Mueller, Bernardo 1999. Titles, Conflict and Land Use: The Development of Property Rights and Land Reform on the Brazilian Amazon Frontier. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Barnes, Susana 2011. Origins, Precedence and Social Order in the Domain of Ina Ama Beli Darlari. In Land and Life in Timor‐Leste: Ethnographic Essays, ed. McWilliam, Andrew and Traube, Elizabeth G., 61–87. Canberra, Australia: ANU E‐Press.Google Scholar
Braithwaite, John Bradford 2002. Rules and Principles: A Theory of Legal Certainty. Australian Journal of Legal Philosophy 27:47–82.Google Scholar
Census. 2010. Census of Population and Housing. Dili, Timor Leste: Direcção Nacional de Estatística and UN Population Fund.Google Scholar
Clamigarand, Brigette 1980. The Social Organization of the Ema of Timor. In The Flow of Life: Essays on Eastern Indonesia, ed. Fox, James J., 134–151. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Clay, Karen, and Wright, Gavin 2005. Order Without Law? Property Rights During the California Gold Rush. Explorations in Economic History 42 (2): 155–183.Google Scholar
Colson, Elizabeth 1971. The Impact of the Colonial Period on the Definition of Land Rights. In Colonialism in Africa 1870–1960, ed. Duignan, Peter and Gann, L. H., 193–215. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Da Silva, A. B. 2004. Potential of Education for Conflict Transformation and Identity Reconstruction in the Cultural Context of Uato‐Lari and Uato‐Carbau. Paper given at Instituto Católico Para Formação de Professores, September 20, 2004, Baucau, East Timor.Google Scholar
Deal, Robert 2010. Fast‐Fish, Loose‐Fish: How Whalemen, Lawyers, and Judges Created the British Property Law of Whaling. Ecology Law Quarterly 37 (1): 204–207.Google Scholar
Dworkin, Ronald 1986. Law's Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Ellickson, Robert 1989. A Hypothesis of Wealth‐Maximizing Norms: Evidence from the Whaling Industry. Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 5 (1): 83–97.Google Scholar
Ellickson, Robert 1991. Order Without Law. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Epstein, Richard A. 1978. Possession as the Root of Title. Georgia Law Review 13:1221–1243.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, Daniel 2002. Land Claims in East Timor. Canberra, Australia: Asia Pacific Press.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, Daniel, and Barnes, Susana 2010. The Relative Resilience of Property: First Possession and Order Without Law in East Timor. Law and Society Review 44 (2): 205–238.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, Daniel, and McWilliam, Andrew 2013. Bright‐Line Fever: Simple Legal Rules and Complex Property Customs Among the Fataluku of East Timor. Law and Society Review 47:311–343.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, Daniel, McWilliam, Andrew, and Barnes, Susanna 2012. Property and Conflict: Land, Custom and Law in East Timor. Farnham, UK: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Forbes, H. O. 1885. A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Forman, Shephard 1980. Descent, Alliance and Exchange Ideology Among the Makassae of East Timor. In The Flow of Life: Essays on Eastern Indonesia, ed. Fox, James, 152–177. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Fox, James J. 1980. The Flow of Life: Essays on Eastern Indonesia. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Fox, James J. 1995. Installing the “Outsider” Inside: The Exploration of an Epistemic Austronesian Cultural Theme and Its Social Significance. Paper presented at the First Conference of the European Association for Southeast Asian Studies: Local Transformation and Common Heritage in Southeast Asia, June 29 to July 1, Leiden, Netherlands.Google Scholar
Fox, James J. 1996. Introduction. In Origins, Ancestry and Alliance: Explorations in Austronesian Ethnography, ed. Fox, James and Sather, C., 130–146. Canberra, Australia: Department of Anthropology, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Fox, James J., and Sather, C. 1996. Origins, Ancestry and Alliance: Explorations in Austronesian Ethnography. Canberra, Australia: Australian National University Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies.Google Scholar
Gunn, Geoffrey C. 1999. Timor Loro Sae: 500 Years. Dili, East Timor: Livros do Oriente.Google Scholar
Gunter, Janet 2007. Communal Conflict in Viqueque and the ‘Charged’ History of ‘59. Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 8 (1): 27–42.Google Scholar
Hadfield, Gillian K., and Weingast, Barry R. 2013. Law Without the State: Legal Attributes and the Coordination of Decentralized Collective Punishment. Journal of Law and Courts 1:3–34.Google Scholar
Hayek, Fredrick A. 1979. Law, Legislation, and Liberty. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hicks, David 1976. Tetum Ghosts and Kin: Fieldwork in an Indonesian Community. Palo Alto, CA: Mayfield.Google Scholar
Judicial System Monitoring Program. 2011. Overview of the Justice Sector 2011. Dili, East Timor: Judicial System Monitoring Program.Google Scholar
Justice and Peace Commission Uato‐Lari Parish. 2000. Report on Uato‐Lari Land Dispute Dialogue 12–17 June 2000. Uato‐Lari, East Timor: Justice and Peace Commission.Google Scholar
Knetsch, Jack, and Trebilcock, Michael 1981. Land Policy and Economic Development. In Papua New Guinea Institute of National Affairs Discussion Paper No 6, 32–33. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea: Institute of National Affairs.Google Scholar
Krier, James E. 2009. Evolutionary Theory and the Origin of Property Rights. Cornell Law Review 95 (1): 139–159.Google Scholar
Lueck, Dean 1995. The Rule of First Possession and the Design of the Law. Journal of Law and Economics 38 (2): 393–436.Google Scholar
Lund, Christian 2002. Negotiating Property Institutions: On the Symbiosis of Property and Authority in Africa. In Negotiating Property in Africa, ed. Juul, Kristine and Lund, Christian, 107. Portsmouth, UK: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Lund, Christian 2008. Local Politics and the Dynamics of Property in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McAdams, Richard 2000. A Focal Point Theory of Expressive Law. Virginia Law Review 86 (8): 1649–1729.Google Scholar
McAdams, Richard 2008. Beyond the Prisoners' Dilemma: Coordination, Game Theory, and Law. Southern California Law Review 82 (8): 209–258.Google Scholar
McDowell, Andrea 2002. From Commons to Claims: Property Rights in the California Gold Rush. Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities 14 (1): 1–72.Google Scholar
McDowell, Andrea 2004. Real Property, Spontaneous Order, and Norms in the Gold Mines. Law & Social Inquiry 29 (4): 771–818.Google Scholar
McWilliam, Andrew R. 2002. Paths of Origin, Gates of Life: A Study of Place and Precedence in Southwest Timor. Leiden, Netherlands: KITLV Press.Google Scholar
McWilliam, Andrew R. 2007. Customary Claims and the Public Interest: On Fataluku Resource Entitlements in Lautem. In East Timor: Beyond Independence, ed. Kingsbury, Damien and Leach, Michael, 165–178. Melbourne, Australia: Monash Asia Institute Press.Google Scholar
Merrill, Thomas 1984. Property Rules, Liability Rules, and Adverse Possession. Northwestern University Law Review 79 (5–6): 1122–1154.Google Scholar
Merrill, Thomas, and Smith, Henry 2000. Optimal Standardization in the Law of Property: The Numerus Clausus Principle. Yale Law Journal 110 (1): 1–70.Google Scholar
Merrill, Thomas, and Smith, Henry 2001. What Happened to Property in Law and Economics? Yale Law Journal 111 (2): 357–398.Google Scholar
Merrill, Thomas, and Smith, Henry 2007. The Morality of Property. William and Mary Law Review 48 (5): 1849–1895.Google Scholar
Metzner, Joachim 1977. Man and Environment in Eastern Timor: A Geo‐Ecological Analysis of the Baucau‐Viqueque Area as a Possible Basis for Regional Planning. Canberra, Australia: Australian National University.Google Scholar
Morriss, Andrew P. 2005. Hayek and Cowboys: Customary Law in the American West. New York University Journal of Law and Liberty 35 (1): 47–48.Google Scholar
Pelissier, Rene 1996. Timor en Guerra: le crocodile et les Portugais (1847–1913). Orgeval, France: R. Pelissier.Google Scholar
Penner, James E. 1997. The Idea of Property in Law. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Rose, Carol M. 1985. Possession as the Origin of Property. University of Chicago Law Review 52 (1): 73–88.Google Scholar
Rose, Carol M. 2008. Big Roads, Big Rights: Varieties of Public Infrastructure and Their Impact on Environmental Resources. Arizona Law Review 50:409–443.Google Scholar
Sahlins, Marshall 1985. Islands of History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Henry E. 2003. The Language of Property: Form, Context, and Audience. Stanford Law Review 55 (4): 1105–1191.Google Scholar
Smith, Henry E. 2009. Community and Property: Community and Custom in Property. Theoretical Inquiries in Law 10 (1): 5–41.Google Scholar
Spencer, Herbert 1969. Principles of Sociology, abridged and ed. Andreski, Stanislav London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Sugden, Robert 1986. The Economics of Rights, Cooperation, and Welfare. New York: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Tay, Alice 1964. The Concept of Possession in the Common Law: Foundations for a New Approach. Melbourne University Law Review 4:476–497.Google Scholar
Taylor, J. 1999. East Timor: The Price of Freedom (Politics in Contemporary Asia). Annandale: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Traube, Elizabeth 1986. Cosmology and Social Life: Ritual Exchange Among the Mambai of East Timor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Trebilcock, Michael 1984. Communal Property Rights: The Papua New Guinean Experience. University of Toronto Law Journal 34 (4): 377–420.Google Scholar
Trebilcock, Michael, and Veel, Paul‐Erik 2008. Property Rights and Development: The Contingent Case for Formalization. University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law 30 (2): 397–481.Google Scholar
Umbeck, John R. 1981. A Theory of Property Rights with Application to the California Gold Rush. Dubuque: Iowa State University Press.Google Scholar
Zerbe, Richard O., and Anderson, C. Leigh 2001. Culture and Fairness in the Development of Institutions in the California Gold Fields. Journal of Economic History 61 (1): 114–143.Google Scholar
Pierson v. Post, 3 Cai. R. 175 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1805).Google Scholar
Pierson v. Post, 3 Cai. R. 175 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1805).Google Scholar