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Esquirol, Jorge L. --- "Formalizing property in Latin America" [2017] ELECD 217; in Graziadei, Michele; Smith, Lionel (eds), "Comparative Property Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 333

Book Title: Comparative Property Law

Editor(s): Graziadei, Michele; Smith, Lionel

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848447578

Section: Chapter 15

Section Title: Formalizing property in Latin America

Author(s): Esquirol, Jorge L.

Number of pages: 22

Abstract/Description:

Advocates for marginalized groups in Latin America are increasingly turning to formal property rights as a means of improving the lives of their constituents. Massive land titling programs, for example, have been championed for residents of urban and rural informal settlements. This type of legal formalization offers some distinct advantages to its beneficiaries; however, it also faces some predictable pressures and known obstacles that may frustrate its intended objectives. Coercive real-estate market forces unleashed on socio-economically disadvantaged beneficiaries of newly titled land, on the one hand, and selective enforcement of property rights by the state, on the other, may erode the expected benefits of tenure stability and a secure stock of low-income housing. In light of these potentially negative consequences, this chapter explores a variety of property protections in Latin America in pursuit of social justice goals. Indeed, the region’s legal history enables an understanding of property ownership in multiple, disaggregated, and relational ways. And, while some property forms may require specific formal elements (such as pre-designated types, writing requirements, and recording procedures), not all property entitlements entail the same formality. As a result, in light of property’s variable constituent elements and its different levels of formality, property protections need not signify solely one type of formalization or be limited to only classical individual ownership (or ancestral collective holdings). In the end, it may not be possible to eliminate all of the disadvantages associated with the current titling programs; still it may be feasible to diminish some of their more negative consequences. In this regard, social justice goals may be assisted by alternative property forms as well as different types of formalization.