This article explores a number of issues concerning the appropriate role for the law to play in the restructuring and reform of land relations and land tenure in Africa. Given current (external) donor tendencies, and (internal) pressures for reform from within, this is a particularly topical issue: in seeking to explore it, the author draws on his own experiences and involvement in land law reform, as well as other sources of information, concentrating on countries and events in Eastern and Southern Africa. After examining various models and country experiences, the article concludes that, while there is no single`right way' to tackle land tenure reform in Africa, there are a number of factors which may be crucial to success, and in which the law Ð and lawyers Ð can play a vital role.

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This article argues that spatial re-ordering in the interests of globalisation goes back to the very beginning of modern Western empires. It does this by exploring the role of land law in globalisation. It shows that there is a remarkable continuity stretching back some 800 or more years in the use of land law to spearhead first English, but now Anglo-American, inputs into and interference with the spatial ordering and national land laws of countries in the developing world. This interference extends even into attempts to re-order land laws and land management as part of programmes of post-conflict statebuilding.

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