Introduction

Taking an insider’s perspective in state administration, this book examines how political, legal, and administrative decisions about formal land tenure systems are made, what and who influences them, which problems and dilemmas politicians and state officials face, and how these systems work in practice. To do so, this book looks into the case of Timor-Leste, showing how, almost 20 years after independence, the country is still grappling with the enormous task of developing a state system that can address the land-related problems caused by colonialism, conflict, and authoritarianism, and attend to the country’s current and future needs. This research is based on my professional experience as government legal adviser and subsequent fieldwork. Chapter 1 introduces the book’s main topics, objectives, and methods. After a brief introduction, it describes the Land Tenure System Analysis Model, a framework of analysis developed for the study of formal land tenure systems that goes beyond a simplistic ‘law on the books and law in practice’ approach. Next, the chapter describes the questions that guide this socio-legal research. The following section focuses on the methods used, debating the limited perspective that a strictly legal analysis brings to the study of formal land tenure systems, and describing the methods used in this socio-legal study, such as participant observation and interviews. After, the chapter debates the ethical problems raised by this book’s insider perspective, and the measures taken to address those problems. The closing sections describe the limitations of this research and provide an outline of the book.