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the poor. Usually, they do not formally regulatetheir relationships. Even in developed countries,marriages, land use arrangements, and the relationshipsaround small businesses are often notdealt with in contracts, out of convenience, mutualtrust or because it is impossible to foreseeevery contingency.Thus, the most serious legal problems thatthe poor report in legal needs surveys revolvearound transitions in these relationships. Deathof the head of the family, divorce, termination ofland use relationships, termination of employment,leaving a community (selling property), changesin business relationships, and expropriation forproperty development are the most common transitions.These transitions do not only create problemsof division of property, but also do so in asetting that is likely to lead to conflict. This is particularlytrue in areas with scarce natural resourcesand high population growth where poor familiescannot create sufficient extra value between transitionsto the next generation to make up for thegrowth in numbers of mouths that have to be fed.In post conflict zones, and in areas struck by naturaldisaster, dislocated persons need to find propertywhere they can rebuild their lives. The claimsof those returning home create extra transitionproblems and thus legal needs.The paths to justice available to the poor in orderto cope with these problems and for accessingtheir rights often develop spontaneously. Communitiestend to organise social structures that dealwith conflict. Within days from the setting upof a refugee camp, the inhabitants create socialnorms and start addressing certain individualswith their grievances. Where a formal registrationsystem is lacking, some person may start collectinginformation about who owns which pieceof land and make these data available to others(see Chapter 2). Sometimes these structures willmirror structures from their home areas becausewhole communities have been moved to thesame locations. Or such structures are of a morepractical nature then reflecting formal or informalprinciples of justice or customary normative systems.Whether the disadvantaged can use themsuccessfully to deal with their problems is variableand depends on access to resources, powerrelations and other factors. Another option forthe poor is often present in the form of religiousnorms and faith based dispute resolution mechanisms.The scope of these mechanisms may belimited, however, to family issues and crime.They are less likely to extend to property rights,employment problems, and the issues related tosetting up businesses on which the Commissionon Legal Empowerment of the Poor focuses.In some communities, informal dispute resolutionmechanisms exist. A recent survey of informaljustice systems identified the following commoncharacteristics of these systems (Wojkowska2006). The problem is viewed as relating to thewhole community as a group — there is strongconsideration for the collective interests at stakein disputes. Decisions are based on a process ofconsultation. There is an emphasis on reconciliationand restoring social harmony. Arbitratorsare appointed from within the community on thebasis of status or lineage. There is often a highdegree of public participation. Rules of evidenceand procedure are flexible and no professionallegal representation is needed. The process is voluntary,although there is frequently a lot of pressureinternally in the family or other groups onthe ‘victim’ to be part of the process. The decisionis based on consensus, providing a high levelof acceptance and legitimacy. There are no cleardistinctions between criminal and civil cases,and between informal justice systems and localgovernance structures. Enforcement of decisions13