Informal Law in Informal Settlements

Because of the inappropriate and excessively high demands of the formal requirements associated with low-cost housing facilities in most developing countries, many of those who comprise the urban poor have resorted to housing themselves through measures established by the informal sector. As the law could also intervene with such situations so that such informal settlements may be regularized, programmes that are provided are able to cover only some issues of public law regularization, for example that of community upgrading and private law regularization such as titles to land. This chapter therefore realises that formal law is interrelated with informal setups since these can be either a cause or a consequence. Using J. W. Harris' analytical framework from Property and Justice, this chapter aims to examine the nature of informal property law.