Rule of Law Promotion, Land Tenure and Poverty Alleviation: Questioning the Assumptions of Hernando de Soto

‘What we try to do at the ILD [the Institute for Liberty and Democracy] is build up a legal system of property that is based on the realities already on the ground.’ Hernando DE SOTO (interview by Jeremy Clift1) ‘And so formal property is this extraordinary thing, much bigger than simple ownership.’ Hernando DE SOTO2 ‘How much security of tenure is enough? There was a time when (World) Bank task managers would have been comfortable with nothing less than full private ownership, with all the freedom of action that confers. However, experience and research have in recent years provided evidence that use rights, customary rights and leasehold rights can provide farmers with security of tenure sufficient to their needs.’ John BRUCE3 Introduction It is fairly easy to make recommendations for ‘rule of law promotion’ or ‘rule of law reform’ in developing countries until one starts to discuss concrete problems and situations. In concrete situations we often find that the laws of a particular Hague Journal