The first volume of the People's Law Journal was written by the Land and Accountability Research Centre (LARC) in the Faculty of Law at the Universityof Cape Town and edited and published by Ndifuna Ukwazi. The journal explores a wide range of relevant issues including land restitution, elite capture, traditional leadership, mining and the erosion of communal land rights in the post-apartheid era

Macha Mission in Choma District of Southern Province, Zambia was founded by the Brethren in Christ (BIC) Church in 1906 and granted title deeds to 3,003 hectares of land by the British colonial authority of the time. Since then the Mission has built a church, a hospital (which today includes a pioneering malaria clinic), two schools, and houses for its workers. A large market has grown up near the hospital, serving local workers and hospital visitors.

This research report examines the changing role and function of civil society in South Africa pre and post-1994, and its changing relations with the state through successive presidencies. It presents a four quadrant typology of civil society organisations

Land acquisition for development projects by government, private investors and land speculators is a critical source of tensions and conflicts in many parts of Uganda. Following the discovery of commercially viable oil reserves in 2006, Uganda turned attention to extractives and oil development as a matter of national priority. Evidence of this assertion can be found in the recent 2016-17 national budget allocations, where the portion for oil development is substantial.

This paper presents the results of a study on property rights in land and biodiversity resources in the Acholi Sub-region. The objective of the study was to map out the changes that have taken place in the sub-region since the dawn of colonialism and how these changes have impacted on the contemporary property rights structure in land and biodiversity resources in the sub-region.

In this oil research paper, we have set out the challenges confronting oil producing countries in sub-Saharan Africa by giving case studies of Nigeria, Angola and Equatorial Guinea. We have also critiqued the draft National Oil and Gas Policy under formulation as well as the legal framework. We argue that the oil Dutch Disease and conflict nexus associated with oil producing countries are not a given since there are examples such as Norway which have utilised their oil revenue for transformation and sustainable development.

The 1995 Constitution of the Republic of Uganda is one of the most gender sensitive constitutions in the world, with clear provisions for promoting and protecting the rights of women. This is also the case in relation to women’s land rights – the Constitution clearly vests land in the people of Uganda, including the rights of women to own and inherit land. Other land laws, including the Land Act, recognize and uphold women’s rights to land as individuals, and as part of a family or community.

The nature and significance of China's engagements with African agriculture continues to be hotly debated in the media, academia and policy circles around the world. Although China has been engaged in Uganda’s agriculture for more than 40 years, the recent jostle for agricultural land by private Chinese investors is dystifying and justifies the need to conduct a scientific study to provide clear evidence before the issue gets bundled into the messy anecdotal media inquiry.

The meaning and scope of the concept of Community-Based Property Rights (CBPR) has become a dominant feature of conservation and development policy discourse over the last decade. The debate has largely been shaped by the growing trends where governments have continued to appropriate traditional lands for conservation and development activities that have resulted into large scale dislocation and widespread disenfranchisement of sections of our society.

China’s investment and trade in Africa’s natural resource sectors have significant implications for Africa’s forests. Many investments are in forest areas. Some directly engage in logging while others, such as mining, infrastructure and agribusiness, affect forests and rural livelihoods. This report provides an overview of trends, evidence and issues related to the impacts on forests of Chinese investments in four African countries: Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Uganda.

Mozambique is Africa’s largest exporter of timber to China. Yet multiple published concerns over the sustainability and legality of that timber trade assert the rapid commercial depletion of future timber stocks, the marginalisation of local forest communities, and the loss of revenue to government estimated at US$146 million between 2007 and 2013 alone.

This is the second in a series of land studies for northern Uganda, whose core objective is to inform the Plan for Recovery and Development of Northern Uganda (PRDP) and the National Land Policy. It builds on the work of the first phase conducted in Teso region to present a more quantitative analysis of trends on disputes and claims on land before displacement, during displacement and emerging trends or occurrences on return for Acholi and Lango sub-regions.