Property in Social Continuity

Benda‐Beckmann, Franz von

doi:10.1163/9789004287174

Cited by 20 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 13 publications

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“…In the mid1970s, we had wondered what might happen if the temporal legal logic of adat would weaken or even break down completely due to ongoing individualization and modernization processes and the pressure to replace it with Islamic property concepts or, more likely, with western notions of ownership. 3 Major social, economic and political changes that have occurred since could potentially have ended the semantic and systemic force of adat, as had been predicted throughout the twentieth century. Four strands of developments stand out.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporalities in property relations under a plural legal order: Minangkabau revisited

Benda‐Beckmann

Benda-Beckmann

2014

The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law

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A temporal perspective is critical for understanding how communities handle changes and continuities in property relations under conditions of legal pluralism. It provides crucial clues on property relations upon the death of property holders and on how concretized property relationships are maintained in social relationships between concrete property holders and objects. This paper inquires into entanglements of distinct property regimes valid among the Minangkabau of West Sumatra, Indonesia, where three legal orders coexist: adat law, Islamic law and state law. Substantial differences in how temporalities are inscribed into the categorical property relations under each of these legal orders have rendered the property and inheritance regimes distinct and the temporalities embodied in each of the component laws discordant.How the temporal logics are configured in each legal order has important consequences for the choices people make when deciding about inheritance and land registration or when handling land disputes -all issues of vital personal, social and economic importance. The temporal focus reveals the reasons for the strong resistance to property categories under state law and Islamic inheritance law. Changes and continuities in property relations in any society are to an important extent informed by the temporalities inscribed in property categories, and some of the most renitent problems of plural legal orders result from the discordant temporalities embodied in each of the component laws. Translating or introducing property concepts in a plural legal order without considering the implications for the legal framework as a whole, and without paying attention to the time dimensions involved, leads to misunderstandings, and uncertainty, instead of trust.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%