Real Legal Certainty and its Relevance: Essays in honor of Jan Michiel Otto

Description

The concept of ‘real legal certainty’ provides a much needed corrective to the general attention for legal certainty in this day and age. It emphasises relations between citizens, adds socio-legal insight, provides a ‘view from below,’ and thus leads to more realistic insights on how to build state institutions. The concept was introduced by Leiden University’s professor of Law and Governance in Developing countries Jan Michiel Otto, and can be considered a central pillar of his work. Against the backdrop of an ever-increasing interest in ‘legal certainty’ in policy-making and academia, friends and colleagues of Jan Michiel Otto engage with the concept provide a wide variety of examples of its relevance. Drawing on case material from all over the world, they show how real legal certainty can be understood in a bottom-up manner and how it is relevant for building state institutions. They also show how the concept can gain in relevance by taking into account actors other than the state. In all, the edited volume is important reading for all whom share professor Otto’s interest in what it takes to bridge law in the books and law in action. Cover Title Copyright Abbreviations The Relevance of Real Legal Certainty – An Introduction Getting Real: Considering Legal Certainty from Below 1. Addressing Adverse Formalisation: The Land Question in Outer Island Indonesia 2. Can Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) Create Legal Certainty for Hunter-Gatherers? 3. The Constitutional Dimensions of Decentralisation and Local Self-Government in Asia 4. Indeterminacy, Uncertainty, and Insecurity Supporting the State: The Relevance of Institution Building 5. The Uncertain Future of Legal Reforms in China’s New Era 6. The Role of Local Bureaucrats in the Law-making Process 7. Law’s Catch-22: Understanding Legal Failure Spatially 8. Missions Impossible to Try Rwandan Genocide Suspects? Other Actors: Widening the Scope 9. Traditional Leadership and Customary Law in Capitalist Liberal Democracies in Africa 10. Capacity Development of Civil Society in a Fragile Context: Dutch Donor Interventions in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo 11. Inheritance Rights and Gender Justice in Contemporary Indonesia 12. The Role of Sharia in Lawmaking: The Case of Libya References List of Contributors