The Role of Customary Law in Sustainable Development

Abstract

For many nations, a key challenge is how to achieve sustainable development without a return to centralized planning. Using case studies from Greenland, Hawaii and northern Norway, this 2006 book examines whether 'bottom-up' systems such as customary law can play a critical role in achieving viable systems for managing natural resources. Customary law consists of underlying social norms that may become the acknowledged law of the land. The key to determining whether a custom constitutes customary law is whether the public acts as if the observance of the custom is legally obligated. While the use of customary law does not always produce sustainability, the study of customary methods of resource management can produce valuable insights into methods of managing resources in a sustainable way.

Developing a method for analyzing institutional change

“…Learning the rules used to govern and manage local natural resources is much more challenging than reading a list of recorded rules. Some rules may have evolved over multiple centuries, as those used in regulating the Bali irrigation systems described by Lansing (2006), the Alpine meadows described by Netting (1981), or customary law in England, Norway, and Africa (Orebech et al, 2005). The original rules were not written down nor have changes been recorded in many of these systems.…”

Crafting analytical tools to study institutional change

“…For these and other reasons, recording the rule systems that people use to govern their interactions is a challenge. Moreover, many rules have evolved over multiple centuries, as those used in regulating the Bali irrigation systems described by Lansing (2006), the Alpine meadows described by Netting (1981), or customary law in England, Norway, and Africa (Orebech et al ., 2005). In many instances, the original rules were not written down.…”

Private and Common Property Rights

“…Netting's findings are strongly supported by studies of mountain villages in Japan, where thousands of rural villages have held communal property rights to extensive forests and grazing areas located in the steep mountainous regions located above their private agricultural plots (McKean 1982(McKean , 1992a(McKean , 1992b. Similar systems have existed in Norway for centuries (Ørebech et al 2005;Sandberg 1998).…”

“…The crucial questions surrounding common-property management have continued to be ones of equity, efficiency and sustainability. Since the turn of this past century, however, the issue of sustainability has increased in its importance and visibility in the commons literature (see, for instance, Agrawal 2001;Anderies et al 2007;Bressers and Kuks 2004;Costanza et al 2001;Kamara, Kirk, and Swallow 2004;Marshall, Fritsch, and Dulhunty 2005;McMahon 2006;Meinzen-Dick and Di Gregorio 2004;Ørebech et al 2005;Oses-Erasoa and Viladrich-Grau 2007;Pasqual and Souto 2003;Smajgl and Larson 2007;Veeman and Politylo 2003). Ecological economist Robert Costanza (2000) writes:…”