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The Failure of Popular Justice in Uganda: Local Councils and Women’s Property Rights

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  • Lynn Khadiagala

Abstract

Advocates of alternative dispute resolution argue that informal, community‐based institutions are better placed to provide inexpensive, expedient and culturally appropriate forms of justice. In 1988, the Ugandan government extended judicial capacity to local councils (LCs) on similar grounds. Drawing on attempts by women in southwestern Uganda to use the LCs to adjudicate property disputes, this article investigates why popular justice has failed to protect the customary property rights of women. The gap between theory and practice arises out of misconceptions of community. The tendency to ascribe a morality and autonomy to local spaces obscures the ability of elites to use informal institutions for purposes of social control. In the light of women’s attempts to escape the ‘rule of persons’ and to seek out arbiters whom they associate with the ‘rule of law’, it can be argued that the utility of the state to ordinary Ugandans should be reconsidered.

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  • Lynn Khadiagala, 2001. "The Failure of Popular Justice in Uganda: Local Councils and Women’s Property Rights," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 32(1), pages 55-76, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:32:y:2001:i:1:p:55-76
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-7660.00196
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    Cited by:

    1. Olivia D'Aoust & Olivier Sterck, 2016. "Who Benefits from Customary Justice? Rent-seeking, Bribery and Criminality in sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 25(3), pages 439-467.
    2. Meghna Dutta, 2018. "Globalisation, Corruption and Women Empowerment," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 37(3), pages 327-343, September.
    3. Deininger, Klaus & Castagnini, Raffaella, 2006. "Incidence and impact of land conflict in Uganda," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 321-345, July.
    4. Klaus Deininger & Daniel Ayalew Ali & Takashi Yamano, 2008. "Legal Knowledge and Economic Development: The Case of Land Rights in Uganda," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 84(4), pages 593-619.
    5. Varley, Ann, 2007. "Gender and Property Formalization: Conventional and Alternative Approaches," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 1739-1753, October.
    6. Bezabih, Mintewab & Teklewold, Hailemariam & Zewdie, Samuel A., 2024. "The influence of large scale land acquisition on smallholder farming productivity - the case of Zambia," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 33(C).
    7. Hickey, Sam, 2005. "The politics of staying poor: exploring the political space for poverty reduction in Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 995-1009, June.
    8. Dastan Bamwesigye & Raymond Chipfakacha & Evans Yeboah, 2022. "Forest and Land Rights at a Time of Deforestation and Climate Change: Land and Resource Use Crisis in Uganda," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-14, November.

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