ABSTRACT
Clearly, if a legal system recognises that a person can have rights of ownership and other interests in property, as has been indicated in all the legal systems of island countries of the South Pacific, then that legal system should make some provision to ensure that those rights and interests are protected and are not lost, or damaged or removed. In Chapters 7 and 8, reference was made to various procedural steps that might have to be complied with in order to acquire or to alienate certain property, for example, the alienation of customary land. These procedures or regulations are not solely for the purpose of keeping a record of certain transactions, but also to protect the holders of property rights from hastily engaging in transactions which may not be in their own or others’ – if they act in a representative capacity – best interests. However, as has also been indicated previously, the law does not generally step in to prevent people from acting unwisely if they have full legal capacity and they choose to do so. Protective measures may therefore be regulatory, preventive or remedial. They may be voluntary, in so far as they exist and a person may choose to make use of them, or they may be compulsory. In this chapter, a variety of methods that have been provided by the legal systems of island countries of the South Pacific for protecting property and rights and interests in property will be considered.
