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University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/74132 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. State Policy and Law in Relation to Land Alienation in Ethiopia Muradu Abdo Srur A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Law University of Warwick, School of Law December 2014 i Contents List of laws………………………………………………………………………………………………....v List of cases…………………………………………………………………….........................................vii List of tables, maps and charts…………………………………………………………………............viii Glossary…………………………………………………………………………………………...............ix Acronyms and abbreviations...………………………………………………………..............................xi Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………………………..............xii Declaration………………………………………………………………………………………………xiii Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………..............xiv Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………..1 A. The importance of land in Ethiopia…………………………………………………………………..1 B. The research question………………………………………………………………………………..6 C. A brief history………………………………………………………………………………………..8 D. The contemporary context…………………………………………………………………………..12 E. Academic and policy perspectives……………………………………………………………….....15 F. Methodology and method…………………………………………………………………………...22 G. Content overview…………………………………………………………………………………...23 H. Reiteration…………………………………………………………………………………………..25 Chapter 1: Perspectives on land…………..………………………….....................…………………....27 A. The revisionist perspective…………………………………………………….............................29 i. Lifting restrictions on land use rights………………………………………………………...30 ii. More land law………………………………………………………………………………...32 B. The privatization perspective…………………………………………………..............................36 i. Basic tenets…………………………………………………………………………..............36 ii. Justifications………………………………………………………………………………....40 iii. Criticisms………………………………………………………………………….................43 C. The associative ownership perspective…………………………………………………………...49 D. Reiteration………………………………………………………………………………………...53 Chapter 2: Feudal appropriation of land and its fruits, 1942-1974…………………………………..55 A. Land tenure forms…………………………………………………………………………………..57 i. Customary land tenures……………………………………………………………………....57 ii. Gult…………………………………………………………………………………………...60 iii. Private ownership of land……………………………………………………….....................67 B. Land tenure reform attempts………………………………………………………………………..70 i. Need for beneficial land tenure reform………………………………………………………70 ii. Government plans without land reform…………………………………................................70 iii. Reasons for failure to introduce beneficial land reform…………………………...................72 C. Reiteration…………………………………………………………………………………………..74 Chapter 3: Partial land reform, 1975-1990…………………………………………………….............77 A. The Rural Lands Proclamation……………………………………………………………………...78 i. Its tenets…………………………………………………………………………………….78 ii. Appropriation of the fruits of land from small farmers……………………………………..82 iii. The program of socialist modernity and its implications for land………………………....87 a. The Derg`s modernization of agriculture……………………………………………87 b. Reasons for the Derg`s agricultural modernization………………………………....92 c. Land tenure implications of the Derg`s agricultural modernization…………………95 ii B. Reiteration…………………………………………………………………………………………..97 Chapter 4: Ethiopia`s shifting land policy…………………………………………………….............101 A. Implications of pre-2000 agricultural development policy for land policy……………………....104 i. Nature of pre-2000 agricultural development policy of Ethiopia…………………………..104 ii. Implications of Agriculture Development Led Industrialization strategy for rural land policy - people`s ownership perspective………………………………………………......................107 a. Peasant and pastoralist security………………………...........................................109 b. Agricultural support system………………………………………………………113 c. Egalitarian access to land…………………………………………………………115 d. Justifications for peasant security and egalitarianism…………………………….117 e. Conceptual underpinning of peasant security and egalitarianism………………...121 f. Political voice of the rural masses and Constitutional interpretation…………….124 B. Post-2000 shift in agricultural development policy and its implications for land policy…...........127 i. Hedasse period…………………………………………………………………...................128 a. Putting a premium on economic growth and poverty reduction papers …………...128 b. Economic actors……………………………………………………………………132 ii. Explaining the shift…………………………………………………………………………136 iii. Implications of the shift for land policy………………………………………………….....139 C. Reiteration………………………………………………………………………………………..143 Chapter 5: Rural land expropriation………………………………………….....................................147 A. Public purpose, compensation and procedural safeguards………………………………………...148 i. Public purpose……………………………………………………………………………....150 ii. Compensation……………………………………………………………………………….153 iii. Procedural safeguards…………………………………………………………………….....159 B. Conflict between Federal and regional expropriation laws…………………………………..........163 C. Expropriation under bilateral investment treaties…………………………………………............163 D. Government narrative about expropriation………………………………………………………..164 E. Comparative experience…………………………………………………………………………...167 F. Reiteration………………………………………………………………………………….……...171 Chapter 6: Kontract among the Sidama……………………………………………………………….174 A. About the Sidama................................................................................................................….........175 B. Land tenure among the Sidama since 1991: the practice of kontract..............................................176 i. Kontract: a trend towards land alienation....................................................…………..........177 ii. Status of kontract under state land law……………………………………………………...184 iii. Status of kontract under utuwa - Sidama custom……………………………….……..........185 iv. Treatment of kontract by state courts……………………………………….……...…….....187 v. Kontract in the eye of government functionaries…………………………...……................193 C. Comparison…………………………………………………………………………….……….....195 D. Reiteration…………………………………………………………………………………….…...197 Chapter 7: Communal rural lands and the Ethiopian state………………………………………...199 A. Perspectives on the commons……………………………………………………………………....200 B. Legal Status of communal rural lands in Ethiopia…………………………………………..……..204 i. Legal status of communal rural lands at present…………………………….……...……....204 ii. Legal status of the commons in the past……………………….............................................210 a. Imperial period…………………………………………………………..................210 b. The Derg period…………………………………………………………………….213 iii C. Reiteration …………………………………………………………………………………...........215 Chapter 8: Communal rural land transfers in Ethiopia………………………………………..........218 A. Global and national drivers.................................................................................................…........220 B. Profile of large-scale agricultural land transfers..................................................................….......221 C. The state...................................................................... …………………………………………....225 i. The over-utilization and under-utilization narratives in highland Ethiopia.……….……….225 a. The overutilization narrative……………………….....................................…...............226 b. The underutilization narrative…………………............................................................230 ii. Tef meret (empty land) narrative in lowland Ethiopia................................................…........232 iii. The regulatory approach: turning empty lands into beneficial sites?.....................................236 D. Investors…………………………………………………………………………………………...245 E. Local people`s narrative.................................................................................................………......246 F. Reiteration………………………………………………………………………………………....253 Chapter 9: Role of international institutions………………………………………………….............257 A. The World Bank…………………………………………………………………………………...259 B. The USAID - an intermediate policy position?…………………………………………...............264 C. An intersection of their role?............................................................................................………....268 D. The World Bank and the USAID, and large-scale land transfers in Ethiopia..................................271 E. The extent of the World Bank`s and the USAID`s influence over Ethiopia`s land policy..............276 F. Reiteration………………………………………………………………………….……………...283 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………............286 A. Land for all………………………………………………………………………………………...288 B. Property rights in land……………………………………………………………………………..290 C. State-driven land alienation………………………………………………………………..............290 i. Land appropriation mechanisms…………………………………………………………….291 ii. Economic growth……………………………………………………......……………….....292 iii. Improvement………………………………………………………………………………..295 D. The contested nature of land alienation……………………………………………….…………...297 E. Tensions…………………………………………………………………………………...............298