A guide to tenure and foreign ownership to support property investment

The state owns over 80% of the land in Sri Lanka. The remainder is owned by private parties. Under the State Lands Encroachments Ordinance, all waste lands, forest lands, unoccupied and uncultivated lands are presumed to belong to the state until the contrary is proved (section 7) and all cinnamon land which have been uninterruptedly possessed by the state for over 30 years are held and deemed to belong to the state (section 6).

This manual outlines dispute resolution mechanisms, procedures and strategies that are or will be put in place by the Sri Lanka Ministry of Justice’s Special Mediation Boards (Land) to promote the resolution of a variety of housing, land and property disputes in the country. Sri Lanka has a long history and experience utilizing collaborative resolution methods to address a wide variety of disputes, and many recent positive experiences with mediation.

This Case Study looks at the implementation of the Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Lands Management Law (VFV Law) in seven villages in Sagaing Region, to assess the practices on the ground and how the law impacts the land tenure security of smallholder farmers.

The report answers the following questions:

1. Is perpetual fee simple ownership of real property permitted? If not, what are the principal forms of ownership, or other principal form of ownership, of real property?

2. What instruments are used to convey fee simple ownership, or other principal form of ownership, of real estate?

3. How in this jurisdiction is the ownership of real property recorded or searched? Who generally performs the search? 

The land is an integral part of every state. Especially land has sacred and cultural value in most of the Asian traditions apart from its social and economic value. Sri Lanka is an island state which has 25,330 sq. Mi for 21,670,000 ("Department of Census and Statistics-Sri Lanka," 2019) of population and a country which inherent legal pluralism as a result of multi-cultural ethnicity and imperialism.

ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Since its establishment in 1999, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) has been dealing with allegations of violations to indigenous customary rights to land, many of which have not been resolved. SUHAKAM in 2010 therefore decided to conduct a National Inquiry into the Land Rights of Indigenous Peoples (the Inquiry) in Malaysia as it is of the view that the issue could not be resolved using piecemeal approaches or addressed on a case by case basis.

ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: 

This review does not attempt to be comprehensive. Instead, we highlight:

• benchmarks in the evolution of land use policies in Sri Lanka;

• the actual contribution made to decisions about land use by systematic information on land resources.

The Centre of Studies for Peace and Development (CEPAD) with support from UN Women, conducted participatory action research over a period of 12 months in order to examine women’s access to justice in the plural legal system of Timor-Leste with a focus on women’s rights to land and property.

This study aimed to pilot an innovative land survey to provide quantitative data regarding landrelated issues in Timor-Leste, in order to support the Timorese government and parliament in developing evidence-based land policies and legislation, as well as more informed advocacy of civil society. The results of this pilot in the municipalities of Dili (urban area only), Ainaro, and Ermera provides relevant evidence regarding access to land, land tenure security, and land related conflict, as well as on the specific policy options taken in the current draft Land Law Package

The article examines the various ways to ensure land rights and also recommends different mechanism to settle land dispute. It is also intended to highlight the problems of present land administration of Bangladesh and to suggest the reformation of the land administration for proper management of land. Land turns around the life of the people of Bangladesh.

This third report comprises two parts: Part 1 contains an analysis of policy options and recommendations for the preparation of a law on land rights and title restitution. The recommendations are based on LLP’s research findings, its comparative case studies, an analysis of existing legislation and on relevant input of stakeholders that participated in LLP’s roundtable on land rights in June 2004. Part 2 presents LLP’s research methodology, results and analysis for the development of land policy concerning land rights and title restitution.