Legal empowerment for local resource control

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5.1. GLOSSARY OF KEY LEGAL TERMS
Binding: that “imposes legal obligations or duties upon a person” (Stewart,
2006).
Case: an action or suit at law.
Case law: “law established by following judicial decisions given in earlier
cases” (Stewart, 2006).
Civil law: family of legal systems, based on Roman law, spread in
Continental Europe, Latin America and Francophone Africa.
Common law: family of legal systems originally influenced by English law,
spread in Anglophone countries.
Compensation: “a monetary payment for loss or damage” (Stewart, 2006).
Court: “an authority having powers to adjudicate in civil, criminal, military,
or ecclesiastical matters; the judge or judges having such authority”
(Stewart, 2006).
Easement: “a servitude; a right enjoyed by an owner of land over land of
another such as right of way, of light, of support, or to a flow of air or
water” (Bone, 2001).
Expropriation: “compulsorily depriving a person of his property by the
state” (Bone, 2001).
Human rights: the fundamental rights and freedoms to which all human
beings are entitled.
Injunction: a court order to do or refrain from doing something.
Lawsuit: “a proceeding in a court of law brought by one party against
another” (Stewart, 2006).
Land registration: “the offical recording of legally recognised interests in
land” (FIG, 1991, quoted in FAO, 2003).
Lease: “a grant of the exclusive possession of property to last for a term of