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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Sue FarranORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Despite the Pacific island country of Vanuatu clearly having a plural legal system, consideration of court cases concerning the eviction of settlers from land demonstrates that there is a general lack of legal reasoning about the role of custom in urban tenure arrangements in Port Vila, Vanuatu. This is a growing problem as tenure shifts from custom to the formal law, notable leases. Those in occupation seeking to secure their tenure struggle to evidence that they have overriding interests. Instead it appears that the values being perpetuated by the legal system lean heavily toward the rights of customary landowners to commoditise and profit from urban land, rather than the value of land for its relational and socio-economic functions as a location for homes and communities. This paper brings together qualitative social science research undertaken among those facing eviction, and a critical analysis of reported cases, in order to illustrate the lived realities of a weak plural legal system and to suggest how this could be strengthened so that justice could be seen to be done in a more equitable manner.
Author(s): Farran S, Day J
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Legal Pluralism and Critical Social Analysis
Year: 2026
Pages: epub ahead of print
Online publication date: 18/04/2026
Acceptance date: 24/02/2026
Date deposited: 05/11/2025
ISSN (print): 2770-6869
ISSN (electronic): 2770-6877
Publisher: Routledge
URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/27706869.2026.2655043
DOI: 10.1080/27706869.2026.2655043
ePrints DOI: 10.57711/2naq-c923
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