ABSTRACT
Proposals for land reform in developing countries often pose two basic questions. First, should any land be capable of private ownership, or should the state retain the legal ownership of all land, subject to specified rights of use and occupancy by those individual persons or groups of person to whom the state may grant such rights? Second, how can the state best identify the location, size, and characteristics of every land parcel, whether publicly or privately owned, and the legal rights that affect it, as part of a national land information system?
