ZAID ABUBAKARI*; CHRISTINE RICHTER; JAAP ZEVENBERGEN A TRIPARTITE NORMATIVE INTERACTION IN LAND REGISTRATION: INHERITANCE AND LAND INFORMATION UPDATING ZAID ABUBAKARI*; CHRISTINE RICHTER; JAAP ZEVENBERGEN Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, the Netherlands, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, the Netherlands *z.abubakari@utwente.nl; abubakari.zaid@gmail.com

Setting the Scene Need to update land registers Facilitation of property market activity Protection of property right holders Spatial and economic planning Reduces cost of registration and litigation Zevenbergen, 2002

Registration and non-registration Often discussed issues Procedural complexity Long transaction times High transaction Cost Corruption Focuses on the organisation itself Narrow perspective This perspective focuses on the bureaucratic arena and does not take into account other normative arenas that influence registration MEANWHILE Land rights are produced and reproduced through social processes. Therefore, it is important for us to also into the social arena to see how it influences registration and non-registration.

The Broader Perspective In this study we expand the perspective of registration and non-registration beyond the frontiers of the administrative processes within the land registration organisation We examine registration and non-registration across three normative arenas namely; Bureaucratic arena Social arena Practical arena Social arena Official arena Practical arena

Study Areas We focused on real property inheritance which is a major source of property ownership and is also regulated by socio-cultural practices Legend The study covers two regions of Ghana known for their matrilineal and patrilineal inheritance practices. We looked at how these practices reflect in rural and urban contexts and also across centralized and decentralized land governance structures

Findings How does each norm influence the registration and non-registration? Official norms: Transaction cost (also draws from the judiciary) Long transaction times (also draws from practical norms) Procedural complexity (also draws from practical norms) Social norms: Rural context (non-registration) Shared knowledge and family network provide security Local structures for enforcement and compliance Urban context (strategic registration) Contested claims among successors Complex property sharing schemes among successors Availability of quasi-ownership documents Successors move between the family legitimacy and formal registration

Findings Cont.…. Practical norms: Within the bureaucratic arena Serve as means to negotiate official norms Adds to overall cost Facilitates registration Within the Social arena Forum shopping between family legitimacy and formal registration depending on the nature of claims (whether competing or complementary)

Conclusion There is no single set of obstacles to registration, instead, the obstacles cut across different normative arenas. Therefore, attempts to handle the problem of non-registration should be tailored at the crossroads of social, practical and official arenas. We have to move away from the formal/informal, customary/statutory binaries because they blur out the “in-betweens” that give additional insights of the real dynamics of registration.

Thank You