Asian land conficts and the Great Transformation: Fallacy of the law and development long-term view

People lived off the land, hunting, gathering, tilling, fishing, herding and creating shelter within communities that provided whatever was necessary for their collective existence. The most far-reaching and consequential modern change, Polanyi observed, was the transformation of labor, land and money into market commodities. Every move toward integration in society should thus be accompanied by an increase in freedom; moves towards planning should comprise the strengthening the rights of the individual in society. Liberal property law and registration systems treat real property as individually held economic assets, with variations: fee simple, joint tenancy or tenancy in common, servitudes on the land, usufruct, life estates and remainders and contractually based lease rights and trusts. Customary land tenure often revolves around communal property that accords different rights and responsibilities to people, the family, kin group, lineage or community to occupy or possess; to be consulted about; to seek permission from; to use for planting, hunting or grazing.