Trend Report | Part 1 - HiiL

This is another problem for which good solutions are now within reach. Good designs of procedures for
compensation and resettlement have been the topic of socio-legal and economic research. Multiple
claims, based on temporary occupancy of the same land are more difficult to resolve,
but across the world courts and informal tribunals have found workable solutions for this in the aftermath
of civil wars. Good procedures take into account the need for mapping the different types of use,
timely communication, exploring options for allocating rights, negotiation about compensation, and the
opportunity of an appeal to an independent forum, which must have experience with valuation of
property and a lot of local knowledge. Principles for determining fair compensation are heavily debated.
But there is a general tendency across borders to award at least the replacement value of the land, the
buildings and the use of communal property. Next to that there will be costs and taxes, compensation for
damage to crops and buildings. Most of the remaining debate is about the size a premium on top of this,
which can be based on a fair share in the value of the new development, but also on a realistic
assessment of the many practical difficulties of restarting life at another location. 3 Furthermore,
large amounts of cash received as compensation can be hard to manage inside a poor family,
so good arrangements for saving are becoming state of the art in dealing with land conflicts as well.
1.2 Serving Justice Needs In A More Effective Way
Making People Work on Fair Solutions
Struggles with civil servants about obtaining identity documents, domestic problems and threats to
tenure security - these are three examples of problems any person in the world can run into. There are
more of these frequent, standard problems: inheritance issues, termination of employment, neighbour
problems, theft, unpaid bills and difficulties regarding pensions and social security benefits. The list is
long, but not endless. If we add victimization by crime and accidents, complaints about products and
services, and conflicts between partners in a small business, these categories cover 90% of the legal
problems an individual runs into in most countries.
Usually, what should happen to solve these conflicts is clear in broad, general, terms. One way or the
other, the parties directly involved in a problem must start communicating again and be helped to
negotiate solutions that will work between them. They also need to agree on fair remedies, which can be
established with reference to standards and guidelines that should, ideally, be publicly available. If no
agreement can be reached, courts or other third parties have to help them to take a decision, and to
monitor compliance.
The Knowledge Is Available
The devil is in the details of making this work. For each of these problems, the best processes and
solutions are different. Sometimes, it is very hard to make them available. In the practice of law,
whether it be in Africa’s pluriform legal systems, or in a multilayered sophisticated court structure,
there will often be competing norms and criteria.
But we know by and large how these problems can be treated effectively. As we will show in this report,
NGO’s, entrepreneurial lawyers, legislators and judges have developed innovative procedures for each of
these problems. Socio-legal researchers, negotiation and conflict resolution experts and economists
explained and tested why some processes work better than others. Negotiators can deal with the
complexity of multiple norms, finding the middle ground. Software developers and owners of websites
selling legal tools are now transforming this knowledge into low cost services that are more affordable.
The challenge is to bring this together, to make these treatments affordable for everyone and to scale up
the services that work best.
3 See, for instance, Asian Development Bank, Capacity Building for Resettlement Risk Management: Compensation and
Valuation in Resettlement: Cambodia, People's Republic of China, and India, 2007, chapter I and V.
HiiL Trend Report – Part 1: Challenges and Promising Approaches 13