ABSTRACT
A growing socio-political movement has vigorously argued that the promotion of legal reform is necessary to support urban reform. The 1988 Federal Constitution gave urban planning an enormous boost as it declared that property rights are only to be recognised when land and property fulfil those social functions determined by municipal master plans and other urban and environmental laws. Traditional 'Urban Planning' became 'Inclusive Planning', and old 'master plans' became 'participatory master plans'. The City Statute entrenched these shifts and required municipalities to formulate new municipal master plans (MMPs) according to the new planning and management principles. A new legal-urban order has been consolidated – sophisticated, articulated and comprehensive – including the constitutional recognition of Urban Law as a field of Public Law with its own paradigmatic principles, namely, the socio-environmental functions of property and of the city and the democratic management of the city.
