Janine Ubink
Biographic Data
| ID | 1398759 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Janine Ubink |
| GIVEN NAMES | Janine |
| FAMILY NAME | Ubink |
| SIGNATURE | UBINK J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Leiden University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2248-6027 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 115 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The mine, the community, and the chief–mining governance and community representation in conditions of legal pluralism
The corporate oxymoron “mine-hosting communities” implies a mutually beneficial relationship between mining companies and surrounding communities. This belies that many communities resist mining activities and downplays the salience of representation and decision-making power in mine-affected communities. Much mining occurs on lands of traditional communities, where mining companies often treat chiefs as uncontested representatives with decision-…
Local Self‐Governance and the State in South Sudan: Studying Gendered Tenure Relations in Times of Uncertainty
With governance increasingly regarded as co-governance, states’ capacity to steer, correct, and discipline a wide range of self-governing actors becomes crucial for states’ effectiveness, efficiency, and democracy. This article investigates that capacity and the relationship between formal institutions and customary self-governance in areas of limited statehood. In South Sudan, the field of land governance can be regarded as an area of limited st…
An exploration of legal pluralism, power and custom in South Africa. A conversation with Aninka Claassens
Traditional Authority in South Africa: Reconstruction and Resistance in the Eastern Cape
This article examines two contradictory conceptions of customary law, as either fundamentally democratic or autocratic, and their impact on the constant reconstruction of and resistance to chiefly authority in modern-day South Africa. In the last 15 years or so South Africa has witnessed a strong legislative agenda to centralise the power of senior traditional leaders. The new traditional authority laws’ ahistorical, authoritarian understanding o…
Shaping legal and institutional pluralism: Land rights, access to justice and citizenship in South Africa
In November 2019, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Bill into law. The Act forms part of a broader package of recent laws and proposed legislation regulating traditional leadership, which have been strongly critiqued for undermining the property and citizenship rights of South Africans residing in the former homelands. The Act is most strongly contested for providing traditional councils with t…
Customary Legal Empowerment in Namibia and Ghana? Lessons about Access, Power and Participation in Non-state Justice Systems
Since the early 2000s, legal development cooperation has displayed an increasing willingness to engage with customary justice systems. However, this engagement is frequently problematic. External actors often lack knowledge about the different versions of customary law, the negotiable nature of customary justice and the power differentials involved in defining customary law. In customary justice systems, norms are defined and negotiated in admini…
Community Justice or Ethnojustice? Engaging with Customary Mechanisms to Reintegrate Ex-Combatants in Somalia
The inclusion of customary justice mechanisms is increasingly being invoked as an answer to the top-down, externally driven approach to transitional justice. But the practice of engaging with customary justice systems (CJS) proves complicated. The approach of governments and the international community has been criticized as ‘ethnojustice,’ where a male-elderly version of customary justice is invented and imposed, based on a myth of community con…
Courting Custom: Regulating Access to Justice in Rural South Africa and Malawi
The continued relevance of customary law for the regulation of the daily lives of Africa's citizens poses serious governance challenges to sovereign states, such as how best to regulate customary dispute settlement. While confronted with largely similar problems, the South African government proposed to enhance and regulate the position of its traditional courts, whereas Malawi has opted for the creation of hybrid local courts that combine charac…
Access vs. Justice: Customary Courts and Political Abuse—Lessons from Malawi’s Local Courts Act
Developing countries are hard-pressed to provide affordable, good-quality dispute settlement to their populations. A case in point is Malawi, where Parliament in 2011 passed the Local Courts Act to remedy the profound lack of access to justice in the country. The proposed local courts are hybrid institutions that combine characteristics of state and customary fora. This Article analyzes the probable impact of local courts on people’s access to le…
Restorative and flexible customary procedures and their gendered impact: A preliminary view on Namibia's formalization of Traditional Courts
From 2011, Namibia has begun implementing its Community Courts Act of 2003, which formally recognizes Namibia's Traditional Courts and creates linkages between the customary and the state legal system. The Act envisages several procedural changes in the operation of Traditional Courts and this article evaluates whether these changes are likely to empower women to make more effective use of the customary justice system. The article describes and a…
How to combine tradition and modernity? Regulating customary land management in Ghana
In The Land of the Chiefs: Customary Law, Land Conflicts, and the Role of the State in Peri-Urban Ghana
International policy is currently witnessing a renewed interest in customary tenure systems as well as traditional leadership, through which it aims to enhance the efficiency of local governance and create general access to and secure rights in land. Contrary to these ideas, practice reveals a lack of security of customary tenure in areas with a high competition for land. Mounting evidence displays that customary systems often evolve inequitably …
Negotiated or Negated: The Rhetoric and Reality of Customary Tenure in an Ashanti Village in Ghana
Customary land tenure is seen as a field in which social and political relationships are diverse, overlapping and competing. Property regimes are, therefore, often analysed in terms of processes of negotiation, with people's social and political identities as central elements. This article studies the negotiability of customary tenure in peri-urban Ghana where land is at the centre of intense and unequal competition and closely tied up with strug…
Negotiated or Negated? The Rhetoric and Reality of Customary Tenure in an Ashanti Village in Ghana
Customary land tenure is seen as a field in which social and political relationships are diverse, overlapping and competing. Property regimes are, therefore, often analysed in terms of processes of negotiation, with people's social and political identities as central elements. This article studies the negotiability of customary tenure in peri-urban Ghana where land is at the centre of intense and unequal competition and closely tied up with strug…
Tenure Security: Wishful Policy Thinking or Reality? A Case from Peri-Urban Ghana
Many areas in Africa facing land shortage and competition witness increasingly restricted and insecure access to land for the poor majority. Mounting evidence of reduced tenure security shows that customary systems are often unable to evolve equitably. In contrast with this crisis in customary land administration, current international land policy is witnessing renewed interest in customary tenure systems. Ghana's current land policy resonates wi…
Traditional Authority Revisited: Popular Perceptions of Chiefs and Chieftaincy in Peri-Urban Kumasi, Ghana
In Ghana a large proportion of the land is vested in 'stools' (customary communities). The current Constitution recognises the traditional authorities as custodians of this land, and customary law as the regulating order. In the Ashanti Region it is the chiefs who are caretakers of the customary lands. Peri-urban areas, such as peri-urban Kumasi, are arenas of severe struggles over land between chiefs, local government and community members and f…
How to combine tradition and modernity? Regulating customary land management in Ghana
In The Land of the Chiefs: Customary Law, Land Conflicts, and the Role of the State in Peri-Urban Ghana
International policy is currently witnessing a renewed interest in customary tenure systems as well as traditional leadership, through which it aims to enhance the efficiency of local governance and create general access to and secure rights in land. Contrary to these ideas, practice reveals a lack of security of customary tenure in areas with a high competition for land. Mounting evidence displays that customary systems often evolve inequitably …
Negotiated or Negated? The Rhetoric and Reality of Customary Tenure in an Ashanti Village in Ghana
Customary land tenure is seen as a field in which social and political relationships are diverse, overlapping and competing. Property regimes are, therefore, often analysed in terms of processes of negotiation, with people's social and political identities as central elements. This article studies the negotiability of customary tenure in peri-urban Ghana where land is at the centre of intense and unequal competition and closely tied up with strug…
Traditional Authority in South Africa: Reconstruction and Resistance in the Eastern Cape
This article examines two contradictory conceptions of customary law, as either fundamentally democratic or autocratic, and their impact on the constant reconstruction of and resistance to chiefly authority in modern-day South Africa. In the last 15 years or so South Africa has witnessed a strong legislative agenda to centralise the power of senior traditional leaders. The new traditional authority laws’ ahistorical, authoritarian understanding o…
Customary Legal Empowerment in Namibia and Ghana? Lessons about Access, Power and Participation in Non-state Justice Systems
Since the early 2000s, legal development cooperation has displayed an increasing willingness to engage with customary justice systems. However, this engagement is frequently problematic. External actors often lack knowledge about the different versions of customary law, the negotiable nature of customary justice and the power differentials involved in defining customary law. In customary justice systems, norms are defined and negotiated in admini…
Community Justice or Ethnojustice? Engaging with Customary Mechanisms to Reintegrate Ex-Combatants in Somalia
The inclusion of customary justice mechanisms is increasingly being invoked as an answer to the top-down, externally driven approach to transitional justice. But the practice of engaging with customary justice systems (CJS) proves complicated. The approach of governments and the international community has been criticized as ‘ethnojustice,’ where a male-elderly version of customary justice is invented and imposed, based on a myth of community con…
Courting Custom: Regulating Access to Justice in Rural South Africa and Malawi
The continued relevance of customary law for the regulation of the daily lives of Africa's citizens poses serious governance challenges to sovereign states, such as how best to regulate customary dispute settlement. While confronted with largely similar problems, the South African government proposed to enhance and regulate the position of its traditional courts, whereas Malawi has opted for the creation of hybrid local courts that combine charac…
Local Self‐Governance and the State in South Sudan: Studying Gendered Tenure Relations in Times of Uncertainty
With governance increasingly regarded as co-governance, states’ capacity to steer, correct, and discipline a wide range of self-governing actors becomes crucial for states’ effectiveness, efficiency, and democracy. This article investigates that capacity and the relationship between formal institutions and customary self-governance in areas of limited statehood. In South Sudan, the field of land governance can be regarded as an area of limited st…
Access vs. Justice: Customary Courts and Political Abuse—Lessons from Malawi’s Local Courts Act
Developing countries are hard-pressed to provide affordable, good-quality dispute settlement to their populations. A case in point is Malawi, where Parliament in 2011 passed the Local Courts Act to remedy the profound lack of access to justice in the country. The proposed local courts are hybrid institutions that combine characteristics of state and customary fora. This Article analyzes the probable impact of local courts on people’s access to le…
Shaping legal and institutional pluralism: Land rights, access to justice and citizenship in South Africa
In November 2019, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Bill into law. The Act forms part of a broader package of recent laws and proposed legislation regulating traditional leadership, which have been strongly critiqued for undermining the property and citizenship rights of South Africans residing in the former homelands. The Act is most strongly contested for providing traditional councils with t…
Tenure Security: Wishful Policy Thinking or Reality? A Case from Peri-Urban Ghana
Many areas in Africa facing land shortage and competition witness increasingly restricted and insecure access to land for the poor majority. Mounting evidence of reduced tenure security shows that customary systems are often unable to evolve equitably. In contrast with this crisis in customary land administration, current international land policy is witnessing renewed interest in customary tenure systems. Ghana's current land policy resonates wi…
Traditional Authority Revisited: Popular Perceptions of Chiefs and Chieftaincy in Peri-Urban Kumasi, Ghana
In Ghana a large proportion of the land is vested in 'stools' (customary communities). The current Constitution recognises the traditional authorities as custodians of this land, and customary law as the regulating order. In the Ashanti Region it is the chiefs who are caretakers of the customary lands. Peri-urban areas, such as peri-urban Kumasi, are arenas of severe struggles over land between chiefs, local government and community members and f…
How to combine tradition and modernity? Regulating customary land management in Ghana
In The Land of the Chiefs: Customary Law, Land Conflicts, and the Role of the State in Peri-Urban Ghana
International policy is currently witnessing a renewed interest in customary tenure systems as well as traditional leadership, through which it aims to enhance the efficiency of local governance and create general access to and secure rights in land. Contrary to these ideas, practice reveals a lack of security of customary tenure in areas with a high competition for land. Mounting evidence displays that customary systems often evolve inequitably …
Negotiated or Negated: The Rhetoric and Reality of Customary Tenure in an Ashanti Village in Ghana
Customary land tenure is seen as a field in which social and political relationships are diverse, overlapping and competing. Property regimes are, therefore, often analysed in terms of processes of negotiation, with people's social and political identities as central elements. This article studies the negotiability of customary tenure in peri-urban Ghana where land is at the centre of intense and unequal competition and closely tied up with strug…
Negotiated or Negated? The Rhetoric and Reality of Customary Tenure in an Ashanti Village in Ghana
Customary land tenure is seen as a field in which social and political relationships are diverse, overlapping and competing. Property regimes are, therefore, often analysed in terms of processes of negotiation, with people's social and political identities as central elements. This article studies the negotiability of customary tenure in peri-urban Ghana where land is at the centre of intense and unequal competition and closely tied up with strug…
Restorative and flexible customary procedures and their gendered impact: A preliminary view on Namibia's formalization of Traditional Courts
From 2011, Namibia has begun implementing its Community Courts Act of 2003, which formally recognizes Namibia's Traditional Courts and creates linkages between the customary and the state legal system. The Act envisages several procedural changes in the operation of Traditional Courts and this article evaluates whether these changes are likely to empower women to make more effective use of the customary justice system. The article describes and a…
Access vs. Justice: Customary Courts and Political Abuse—Lessons from Malawi’s Local Courts Act
Developing countries are hard-pressed to provide affordable, good-quality dispute settlement to their populations. A case in point is Malawi, where Parliament in 2011 passed the Local Courts Act to remedy the profound lack of access to justice in the country. The proposed local courts are hybrid institutions that combine characteristics of state and customary fora. This Article analyzes the probable impact of local courts on people’s access to le…
Community Justice or Ethnojustice? Engaging with Customary Mechanisms to Reintegrate Ex-Combatants in Somalia
The inclusion of customary justice mechanisms is increasingly being invoked as an answer to the top-down, externally driven approach to transitional justice. But the practice of engaging with customary justice systems (CJS) proves complicated. The approach of governments and the international community has been criticized as ‘ethnojustice,’ where a male-elderly version of customary justice is invented and imposed, based on a myth of community con…
Courting Custom: Regulating Access to Justice in Rural South Africa and Malawi
The continued relevance of customary law for the regulation of the daily lives of Africa's citizens poses serious governance challenges to sovereign states, such as how best to regulate customary dispute settlement. While confronted with largely similar problems, the South African government proposed to enhance and regulate the position of its traditional courts, whereas Malawi has opted for the creation of hybrid local courts that combine charac…
Customary Legal Empowerment in Namibia and Ghana? Lessons about Access, Power and Participation in Non-state Justice Systems
Since the early 2000s, legal development cooperation has displayed an increasing willingness to engage with customary justice systems. However, this engagement is frequently problematic. External actors often lack knowledge about the different versions of customary law, the negotiable nature of customary justice and the power differentials involved in defining customary law. In customary justice systems, norms are defined and negotiated in admini…
Shaping legal and institutional pluralism: Land rights, access to justice and citizenship in South Africa
In November 2019, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Bill into law. The Act forms part of a broader package of recent laws and proposed legislation regulating traditional leadership, which have been strongly critiqued for undermining the property and citizenship rights of South Africans residing in the former homelands. The Act is most strongly contested for providing traditional councils with t…
An exploration of legal pluralism, power and custom in South Africa. A conversation with Aninka Claassens
Traditional Authority in South Africa: Reconstruction and Resistance in the Eastern Cape
This article examines two contradictory conceptions of customary law, as either fundamentally democratic or autocratic, and their impact on the constant reconstruction of and resistance to chiefly authority in modern-day South Africa. In the last 15 years or so South Africa has witnessed a strong legislative agenda to centralise the power of senior traditional leaders. The new traditional authority laws’ ahistorical, authoritarian understanding o…
Local Self‐Governance and the State in South Sudan: Studying Gendered Tenure Relations in Times of Uncertainty
With governance increasingly regarded as co-governance, states’ capacity to steer, correct, and discipline a wide range of self-governing actors becomes crucial for states’ effectiveness, efficiency, and democracy. This article investigates that capacity and the relationship between formal institutions and customary self-governance in areas of limited statehood. In South Sudan, the field of land governance can be regarded as an area of limited st…
The mine, the community, and the chief–mining governance and community representation in conditions of legal pluralism
The corporate oxymoron “mine-hosting communities” implies a mutually beneficial relationship between mining companies and surrounding communities. This belies that many communities resist mining activities and downplays the salience of representation and decision-making power in mine-affected communities. Much mining occurs on lands of traditional communities, where mining companies often treat chiefs as uncontested representatives with decision-…
Political science (14 works) · Law (12 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Land Rights and Reforms (9 works) · Geography (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Customary land (7 works) · Land tenure (7 works) · Legal Issues in South Africa (7 works)