GUYANA BAR
ASSOCIATION LAW CONFERENCE
THE STATE OF
THE PROFESSION THE WAY FORWARD
25/26
NOVEMBER, 2000
_____________________
LAND LAW IN
GUYANA - SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FUTURE
Leon
O. Rockcliffe
INTRODUCTION
Many thanks
for having undertaken the kindly risk of asking me to do this presentation even
as I hasten to invoke my own exclusion clause regarding negligent
misrepresentation.
May I be permitted at the
outset to pay respect to a few personalities whose counsel, collaboration and
encouragement I have enjoyed over the years in relation to the land law and more particularly the field of
conveyancing. Mr. R.S. Persaud,
deceased, Dr. Fenton Ramsahoye, Mr. Justice John Romao, Messrs. Malcolm Chase,
Neville Bhulai, Attorney-at-Law and Walter Mohabir, now a banker, all
except Dr. Ramsahoye being ex Registrars of Deeds. I recognize also in that regard the
erstwhile Commissioner of Title Mr. Gerald Broomes and the incumbent Ms. Dawn
Gregory Barnes with both of whom there has been much fruitful discussion.
Regarding our Topic: It is my conviction that any serious aspect
of endeavour touching human lives is
likely to have some spiritual, philosophical, ethical and of course technical
base. Land and its tenure, I propose as
an apt example of that theorem. Ever
since creation man has devoted a tremendous amount of his energies toward its
acquisition for one purpose or another, in the course of which he has
demonstrated an alarming capacity to shed
and to sacrifice precious human blood.
It is this latter element that tends to stamp land holding, and by that
same token the law governing it,
with a degree of sacredness to which we must ever pay regard. Title to land is indeed all about security,
whether from a national, commercial, corporate or individual perspective. The territorial rights under international
law accruing to a great nation occupying three million square miles and
supported by unlimited military might are in a sense of no greater import than
those claimed and jealously guarded by the squatter in relation to his 40' x
80' tenement.
It is against such a
background that I seek within the
limited time allowed to respond to your invitation and to do at least
some little justice to my terms of reference.
LAND LAW -
GENERAL
It is
almost impertinent to attempt any consideration of legal interests in immovable
property in Guyana without paying deference to 'The Development of Land Law in
British Guiana' by Dr. Fenton H.W. Ramsahoye (1964) published in 1966. Well, I have partly paid my dues, but will
make bold for our present purposes to distil from that most learned and
informative treatise the simple element that land in Guyana may be placed into
the following basic categories:-
(a)
State Land, formerly
Crown Land, which initially comprised all of the land in British Guiana which
fell from Holland to the British Crown under the Treaty of Cession, 1803, save
and except such lands as had been acquired by previous alienations. Those alienations were mainly in the form of
Grants by the Dutch West India Company or the Court of Policy which are the
origin of much of the land held at present under the Roman-Dutch 'Transport','
system;
(b)
Government or Colony Land which is in essence land
bought by the Government, before and after Independence, with money out of the
public revenues. These are no different
in legal character from the Private lands described below.
(c)
Private land namely that held in full
ownership under a document of title (Transport) or registered land held under
the Land Registry Act.
Private Land
The
Civil Law Ordinance effective from 1 January 1917 abrogated the application of
most of the pre-existent Roman Dutch Law and introduced from that date the
English Common Law including the doctrines of equity present and future as the
one common law for both movable and immovable property. The Legislative Governor and Court of Policy
were careful, however, to exclude the English Law of real property and provided
that the common law of immovable property in British Guiana should be continued
and enforced as far as possible according to the principles of the Common law
of England applicable to personal property.
A significant retention from
the Roman-Dutch Law was the law and practice then existing in relation to
conventional mortgages of immovable property, easements, real servitudes and
the right of opposition to transports and mortgages and, by that token, the law
and practice relating to transports and mortgages themselves. This right of opposition has been extended
more recently to leases and transfers thereof since long leases, which must be
advertised and passed as in the manner of transports, are recognized and
treated as alienations of immovable property.
The Ordinance made provision
for full ownership as the only ownership of immovable property recognized by
the Common Law although life interests with remainders over whether devised by
will or created inter vivos are an established incident of our present law.
There
are few restrictions upon the categories of person who may hold land in
Guyana. The holder may be a locally
established corporation, a natural person regardless of gender, matrimonial
status, age or mental condition, or an unincorporated body (usually through
Trustees) or even an alien. Special
provision is made under the Amerindian Act for communal title holding on their
behalf.
The
restrictions apply to foreign corporations who must receive Presidential
licence to hold title to land and Trade Unions who may hold land no more than
one acre in area. It goes without
saying that Government, as distinct from the State in the context of the State
Lands Act, may hold land just as a private party does,
A
response to the continuing recognition of the need for reform, modernization
and simplification of the system of land law since 1917 came in the guise of
the Land Registry Ordinance, 1959 now the Land Registry Act. In operation since 1960, this Act has
introduced into Guyana the Torrens system of land registration which affects
all three counties. Significant
characteristics are the establishment of Land Courts under Commissioners of
Title, the production of an indefeasible title based upon accurate land surveys
and the facility of protection of rights by simple registration of transfers,
mortgages and charges, judgments, writs of execution, caveats and prohibitions,
and the creation of liens on property
by the deposit of the Certificate of Title into the hands of a creditor.
Its
provisions affect State Land, Government Land and Private Land alike.
The
existent legal provisions governing the two systems referred to above and the
rights associated with them are all subject to final determination by the
Supreme Court and so, in combination, constitute a highly satisfactory framework within which the
state, government, and citizen alike may continue to acquire, hold and defend
their respective interests in immovable property.
TITLES TO
IMMOVABLE PROPERTY
Since
I do propose that a system of land law is empty which does not have as its
ultimate product some reliable document of title, we should do well to visit
the different forms of land title currently available in Guyana. They would be the best demonstration of the
life and vitality of the system that ought to provide the widest opportunity
and protection for land holding regardless of the social or economic status of
the contestant.
We
may deal first with what may be termed private land revolving around the
traditional Transport, which confers absolute title and transactions in which
take place in the Deeds Registry along with those for registered title conducted in the Land Registry.
1. Transport The most commonly known and used document of
title to immovable property (i.e land alone or land with building affixed
thereto) is the Transport, a product of the Roman Dutch system that prevailed
in British Guiana until 1 January, 1917, from which date it was by the Civil
Law Act (Cap. 6:01) abrogated, leaving only the law and practice effectively
relating to conventional mortgages of movable and immovable property and by
that token, a recognition of the law and practice relating to transports. The main regulatory statutory provision
relating to transports is the Deeds Registry Act, (Cap. 5:01 of the Laws of Guyana). This Act, with its subsidiary legislation,
namely, Deeds Registry Rules, Rules of the High Court (Deeds Registry) and
Deeds Registry Fees Regulations provides, inter alia, for the passing before
the Court or Registrar of Deeds of all transports, leases of 21 years or more
(long leases), mortgages of both movable and immovable property, cancellation
of such mortgages, and the passing before the Court or Judge of judicial sale
transports, i.e those acquired through purchase at an execution sale. All of the above must be registered and
filed as of record in the Deeds Registry.
2.
Order under Section 35 of
the Deeds Registry Act
The Act provides also for
the registration or conveyance of title to land acquired from deceased persons
or in other circumstances set out in section 35 of the Act. The Order of the Court directing such
acquisition may be registered as a Title or may form the basis of a conveyance
or transport by the Registrar. The
Order so registered is as good and valid as a transport. For these purposes it is generally described
as "An Order of Court under Section 35."
3. Declaration
of Title Order Title to Land
(Prescription and Limitation Act (Cap. 62:05 of the Laws of Guyana).
An Order of the Court made
pursuant to a petition presented under the Act and based upon exclusive
possession and occupation of another's land openly, without permission and
without force may be registered by the Registrar as a title under the
provisions of Rule 8 of the Rules of the High Court (Declaration of Title) and
when so registered, would have the full value of a title to the property
mentioned or may be converted into a transport passed by the Registrar to the
successful Petitioner.
4. Letters of Decree This is a form of (execution sale) judicial
sale title issued up to but not after 31 December, 1919. It is still as valid as a transport.
5. Absolute Grant of
State (Crown) Land An absolute
Grant of State Land issued under Crown Lands Ordinance or the State Lands Act
(Cap. 62:01 of the Laws of Guyana) is treated as valid as a transport and upon
sale is transported to a purchaser under the provisions of the Deeds Registry
Act. Those Grants of Crown Lands issued
before 23 May, 1966 remain valid as Grants of State Land.
6. Long Lease As defined at section 13 of the Deeds
Registry Act, a long lease of 21 years or more is treated as immovable property
and may be transferred or surrendered by the same procedure applicable to
transports under that Act. These were
often for 99 years duration, but greater resort is had to the 999-years lease
as the next best alternative to a transport mainly in cases where some
statutory provision prohibits the passing of transport on account of the size,
location or condition of the land. Most
commercial houses accord the 999 years lease the same value as a transport for
purposes of security.
It should be noted that
State Land leases of 21 years or more, although immovable property are not
subjected to the provisions of section 13 of the Deeds Registry Act which
relates to registration, advertisement and passing before the Court or
Registrar.
7. Transfer
of Title Order Made by
the Minister under the provisions of the Public Corporations Act 1988. This device is currently used by the
Government for giving title to purchasers under the program for divestment of
State-owned property. These Orders
constitute good and valid title and may be the basis of a conveyance by the
Registrar of Deeds to the purchaser.
Sections 5 and 8 of the Act refer.
8. Certificate
of Title under the Land Registry Act Collateral
with the transports system is one of land registration governed by the Act
(introduced in 1960 by the Land Registry Ordinance, 1959) whereunder the
Registrar of Lands would register the proprietorship of land based upon an
initial order made by a Commissioner of Title in the Land Court. The Certificate of Title is issued by the
Registrar as evidence of such registered proprietorship. Title under the Act is absolute and
indefeasible (section 65) with a few exceptions and a Provisional Title,
(section 67), convertible into an absolute tile, may also be issued.
9. Lease of Registered Land The Land Registry Act (Section89) provides
for the issue and registration of leases for a term exceeding three years, or the
issue of leases for three years or less (registration not mandatory). Provision is also made for registration of
sub-leases, transfers and surrenders (Sections 89-96). Leasehold interests in land may be mortgaged
or charged in accordance with the provisions of sections 80-88 of the Act.
The
two title systems continue to operate collaterally and be administered under
the same roof.
10. District Lands
Partition and Re-Allotment Act Cap. 60:03
Enacted in 1926, this Act
provided for the partition of lands where title was archaic or in a state of
general confusion. The officer, usually
a government land surveyor, would issue transports to claimants based on
purchase or inheritance.
It has fallen into disuse
since the passing of the Land Registry Act in 1959, as the powers of a
Commissioner of Title are wider and the resultant title would be under the more
favourable land registration system.
11. Condominium
(Regulation and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989
Under the provisions of this
Act, title may be issued to the purchaser of a unit in one of the Government
housing schemes, mainly those built as blocks of four units or more, many in
excess of forty years ago. These titles administered by the Registrar of Deeds
and which are as valid as a transport are fraught with legal and social
problems and are accordingly not well recognized as security for loans by
financial institutions.
Other Title There
are specific statutory provisions for the issue or vesting of title to land
acquired by the State or Statutory Bodies for the execution of public works, the common element being that
they operate to extinguish or erode the title of private persons for the public
well-being.
The related statutes are as
follows and speak for themselves:-
a)
Acquisition
of Lands for Public Purposes Act (Cap. 62:05)
b)
Drainage
and Irrigation Act (Cap. 64:03)
c)
Sea
Defence Act (Cap. 64:02)
d)
East
Demerara Water Conservancy Act (Cap. 55:03)
e)
Acquisition
of Lands (Land Settlement) Act (Cap. 62:06)
f)
Telecommunications
Act No. 27 of 1990.
ACTION
Arising
from the above list of land titles I desire to focus upon only three, with a
recommendation for some affirmative action.
Prescriptive
Title Petitions Under The Title to Land (Prescription
and Limitation) Act - Chapter 62:05.
An
inspection of the weekly Official Gazette and the week-end classified columns
of the daily newspapers would reveal a recent spate of these Petitions. The Guyanese diaspora has resulted in many
cases of absentee proprietorship of lands actually held by Transport. Here are two scenarios that invite
attention:-
(a)
There
are many watchful predators who are not slow to exploit the provisions of the
legislation by perjurious means and to thrive upon the absence of the true
owners and the inability by the Registrar of Deeds to provide accurate
information as to title to that land or to that of contiguous owners. This information is an essential monitoring
device upon which the Judge must rely in assessing the conformity by the petitioner
with the provisions of the substantive
Act and the Rules of the High Court (Declaration of Title;
(b)
It
has been the pattern particularly in
riverain areas for the riparian owner to be awarded an Absolute Grant (now a
Transport) of land of certain façade by a depth (known as the "first-depth")
of 750 roods Dutch Rhynland measure equivalent to approximately one and
three-quarters statute miles in Demerara and Essequibo and 1018 roods in
Berbice - about two and a quarter
miles. The petitioner would occupy only
a small portion of the front lands of such a tract, but his petition would
embrace the entire depth which he or she has almost certainly not
occupied. The granting of such a
petition without more is manifestly unfair to the title-holder who would be
limited from vindicating his right of title to that portion clearly not
occupied by the petitioner.
I
recommend the following remedies in the public interest:-
(i)
That
the legal practitioner, even to the possible prejudice of the magnitude of
his/her fee extract from the client-petitioner so much information as would
enable the practitioner to present a petition that conforms with the
truth. After all, the goodly
practitioner is an officer in the Court;
(ii)
That
the Honourable Judge, now the Commissioner of Title, would see fit to exact
from the petitioner a more strict standard of proof in relation to his evidence
and that of his supporting neighbours as well as insist on an indication on the
land surveyor's plan of the physical condition of the entire tract of land with
emphasis on the occupational development on which the petitioner relies.
In the above regard the
Court must strongly resist applications for dispensation with the land
surveyor's plan for which the Rules do make some provision.
2.
The 999 Years Lease
This monstrous anachronism
that has apparently served so many so well should at the earliest opportunity
be condemned to abolition. It is
artificial, operationally cumbersome as in the case of successive transfers and
was indeed elevated into respectability in the early 1950's for the express
purpose of subverting the law. I refer
to the provisions of the Public Health Ordinance, Cap. 152 of the Laws of
Guyana (1953 Kingdom Ed. - those fawn-coloured volumes) the Georgetown Town
Coumcil Ordinance Cap. 152 sec. 127-131 - (1953 Ed.). The Local Government Act, Cap. 28:02, sec. 72 and the Municipal
and District Councils Act, Cap. 28:01, sec. 300 (Current Ed. of the Laws of
Guyana).
The common factor of these
provisions is the minimum area of land that may be transported so that
resort has been had to the 999 year lease that would be technically exempt from
them. But the intent of the Public
Health Ordinance was surely to limit the
area of subdivisions from the sanitary perspective with a view to
thwarting the breaking up particularly of domestic holdings into the type of
fraction that would both constitute a potential health hazard and offend any
sensible town planning scheme. The fact
however, is that land of a few square feet in area is now conveyed by 999 years
lease, legally recognized as immovable property and significantly, is
recognized both by the Local Democratic Councils for rating purposes and by the
financial institutions as collateral for loans. In effect the 999 years lease is now virtually as good a title as
a transport.
The time is clearly arrived
for legal minds to address this
question with a practical view to
converting all 999 years leases into absolute titles and bringing an end to the
legal farce that has developed. There
must be at some time a statutory amendment that would bring an end to its
abuse. It is admittedly controversial
with much scope for argument.
3.
Title through Intestate
Succession - The Surviving Spouse
The Civil Law Act, Cap. 6:01
stipulates at section 5 the laws of
succession to the property of an intestate deceased and provides at sec.
5(7) that the surviving spouse be entitled to the sum of four hundred and
eighty dollars as a first charge on the estate of the deceased; any amount (or value) over that sum must be
divided among the widow(er) and descendants or widow(er) and next of kin to the
third degree. This provision became
effective 1. 1.1917, eighty-three years ago, when that first charge represented
the princely sum of ₤100 Sterling.
It stands unaltered in the year 2000.
From the land-title
perspective, the provision cries out for parliamentary amendment that would
have the statutory effect of making the surviving spouse entitled to a first
charge of maybe $1,000,000 (one million
dollars). The intent is that at
least where there are no descendants, the land which may be of little value
would be saved from devolution or division into fractions to be shared with
brothers and sisters and/or countless nieces and nephews of the intestate.
The section as it stands has
been a significant contributory to that curse of land tenure, namely
"children-property", a term much associated with decrepitude of
buildings and abandonment of productive land.
Legislative action is
certainly requisite.
LAND
ADMINISTRATION
It would be most unworthy of us if we did not
consider the administrative mechanisms through which we must expect delivery of
the services relating to the management of land tenure and title thereto. Let us first deal with State Lands.
State Lands
State Lands are those lands which
were entitled before Independence
'Crown Lands,' administered under the old Crown Lands Ordinance which
was succeeded by the current State Lands Act Chapter 62:01 of the Laws of
Guyana, It is safe to say that all lands except those in private ownership such
as are administered under the Roman-Dutch 'Transports' system or are registered
land under the Land Registry Act are State Lands and are administered by the
Commissioner of Lands and Surveys under the current State Lands Act (subject to
the exceptions below). The Guyana Lands
and Surveys Commission Act 1999 awaits the order by which it will come into
operation. Among its functions will be
to have charge of and act as guardian over all public lands, rivers and creeks
of Guyana, although the term 'public lands' must be thought not to embrace
those Government Lands administered by the Central Housing and Planning
Authority as transported or registered land.
The titles now issued by the
Department of Lands and Surveys under the State Lands Act by authority of the
President are Absolute and Provisional Grants, Licences and Leases for
agricultural, cattle grazing, industrial and commercial purposes.
A
significant current development is the preparation of a programme of Land
Tenure Regularisation by a team of the British Department For International
Development on behalf of the Government of Guyana. Its main objectives are
security of tenure to the title-holder, an authoritative and up-to-date record
of public-land holdings, and a more effective system of land administration by
the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission.
The output of this programme will include importantly a legal definition
of tracts of land that accurately reflects conditions on the ground and a land
transfer system that is simple, secure and cheap to operate.
The
exceptions earlier mentioned relate to those areas of State Land that fall
within the ambit and control of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC)
under the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission Act and the Guyana Forestry
Commission (GFL) under its own legislation the Guyana Forestry Commission Act
1979.
These
Acts, respectively, make appropriate provision for the issuing of title to land
relative to the operations that their names suggest. The miner and the prospector may establish a claim and obtain
from the GGMC as well as transfer a mining lease or permission. In similar vein, the forester may obtain
from the GFC exploitative titles in the form of a timber sales agreement,
timber concession, forest permission, licence, or permit for the felling of
timber and occupation of forest lands.
It
may then be fair to conclude that there is actually or in prospect adequate
statutory provision for the title to land on behalf of those persons whose main
operations lie in the spheres of agriculture, mining or forestry and involve the occupation, ownership and
transfer of State Lands. On the
communal side, a recent issue of Land Registry Certificates of Title to several
Amerindian communities by way of Absolute Grant under the State Lands Act is a healthy revisitation of a process
commenced in 1976 when titles were issued under the Amerindian Act. This process has recently assumed greater
socio-political significance even as the matter of title to land in favour of
indigenous populations secures its place on the international agenda. The geographical scope of such lands allied
with considerations of the environment and competing economic activity in those
areas will surely attract a fair degree of judicial deliberation.
Private Lands
We
have seen that all transactions in non-State Lands held by titles, are
conducted in the Deeds Registry or the Land Registry. It is crucial that we pay these Departments particular attention.
Deeds Registry
The sacred duties of
this Department in relation to land,
involve the recording and processing of title to that category of land which falls under the Roman-Dutch or
'Transports' system. In short, all of
that land which is not State Land or registered land. This Department where once flourished pride of performance,
efficiency, academic quality and a high degree of integrity, may well described
as being under tremendous siege by the destructive forces of neglect, abandonment,
starvation of human and financial resources, ignorance, cultural ineptitude
and, as in so many areas of Guyana, corruption. In describing its present
status I opt for the dramatic and shout aloud the monosyllabic "HELP"!
In a public clarion call
made as long ago as March 1996 the caller's initial paragraph read thus and I
quote:
"Imagine a modern-day
country where the citizen cannot check the title to his own or his neighbour's
land; where the owner of a lot cannot inspect the land-surveyor's plan on which
his title is based. Or where the
statutory records of companies and business registration are inaccessible. Where the rich and unscrupulous may by a
single corrupt gesture deprive the unaware, the poor, the disadvantaged or even
the ordinary person of some right or his or her hard-earned domestic home. Well, this is no flight of fancy. That scenario is being worked out right now
with frightening reality at a government department known as the Deeds Registry
situated at the lower northern floor of the High Court building in
Georgetown."
The writer bemoaned the fact
that many of the records, and especially those relating to title to land were
under a virtual state of siege and the victim of a continuing process of
unimaginable deterioration, careless handling and outright destruction. Nothing has changed! I quote for good measure his final paragraph
which read:
"Surely
the President would be well aware that the matters to which I have pointed deal
with an undermining of the crucial elements of economic and civic stability
which are an essential foundation of national peace and good order. I also believe that he well knows that any
nation that permits records of its land
titles, deeds and legal commercial material to deteriorate to the level that
now obtains at the Deeds Registry is a nation well advanced on the road to
anarchy. Surely it is time for him to
act."
It was indeed a serious call
for the declaration of the Deeds Registry as a National Disaster Area. That call remains louder than ever. The
Registrar and staff and indeed the entire community are in desperate need of
real assistance. Will this conference respond?
Land Registry
It is a matter of regret that similar considerations apply to the
Land Registry, the deterioration of
which mocks at the benefits that ought to be derived from this superior and
more convenient system and form of title to land. This Department which records and processes title to land under
the Land Registry Act is starved of operating space and stuffed into a corner
of the Deeds Registry area and quite apart from its ineptitude in rendering
service in registered land transactions, it is ill-equipped to process the
abundant material expected to flow from the Land Tenure Rehabilitation programme now being devised
by the nascent Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission.
Another Disaster Area,
another shame!
CHALLENGE
TO DISORDER
There is without doubt a
spirit of rampant disorder and lawlessness in this land which manifests itself in
forms convenient to the mind and status of the guilty parties. The endemic problem of 'vendormania' now
assailing the capital city and the wider community is only one aspect of this
and when reduced to simple terms, is clearly one of an interest in land,
whether by title, or some other form of defensible occupation of territory that
assures to the contender a fixed place of operation of whatever size, from
which he or she cannot legally be moved.
It is often blindly self-serving with little regard for the
long-established rights of other individuals or the public at large.
However, the most blatant
manifestation of this spirit of rapacity appears in several parts of the city,
but most recently on Sheriff Street, where monied business-men operating from
properly defined lots of land extend their domain across the wide public
reserve onto the edge of roadway virtually cementing their title to the entire
façade of their lots by acquisition of public land for their narrow purposes of
private gain. This is land reserved for
the establishment of pedestrian transit, parking of public vehicles and the
lateral expansion of road works for the general public good. As this open abuse of public rights in land
proceeds unchecked by the governmental agencies not only in Georgetown but also
on the east coast highway, who must raise the cry? Is there not a strong element of challenge to us lawyers who are,
after all, professionally equipped to articulate the dangers of such a disease
and to insist on a halt to the process?
Well, we have three
choices. We may sit idly in cowardly
silence and hope that it will be resolved by somebody else or just go
away. Or, we may sit gloatingly by,
ready to lend our aid, for filthy lucre, to those very forces of greed,
indiscipline and disorder in the form of injunctions, skilful and artificial
defences, or even worse, in supporting their claims for affirmative title to
these lands which now lie in danger of being lost to the public through
governmental carelessness or our own lassitude.
There is a third option
available to us if we are to justify the traditional reputation of advocates
for the redress of public wrongs. We
may sound the alarm and insist upon immediate action by the relevant authorities
toward the cessation of the rapinc activity and the restriction of the
miscreants within their proper legal boundaries. There is the challenge!
You should have little
difficulty in determining which of the options I advocate. It's all about title
to land!
FINALE
There
appears to be sufficient basis for our satisfaction regarding the adequacy of
legal provisions both statutory and at common law for the protection of the
rights of the state and society at large in relation to interests in immovable
property. The constitutional guarantee
against unjust deprivation without adequate compensation, access by all
citizens to the obtainment of title to public land, the free transferability of
such land and the access to the Court in vindication of such rights, provide at
the present time an adequate legal
umbrella for the protection of society as far as its interests in land are
concerned.
What
about those implications for the future which I am charged to address? The answer poses no difficulty. I have chosen to identify and emphasize the areas of patent institutional weakness and
public disorder which demand immediate attention and redress. That future lies squarely in the hands and
on the shoulders of a worthy legal profession.
You
will surely have detected a certain lack of erudition and academic content in
this presentation which has been
limited to a simple overview of the atmosphere in which our people must
enjoy and transact their legal rights of property to land. Well, I do not regret that too deeply. The first and uncomplicated reason is my
admitted incapacity to arise to those heights.
The second and more compelling reason is that my present emphasis and
over-riding concern reside in the re-establishment in our hearts of an urgent desire
for good order, the preservation of the legal and administrative mechanisms for
its effectiveness and a firm resolution on our part as lawyers to ensure that
there is a full contribution at the personal level toward the prosperity of
that process. It falls to ourselves as
the legal profession to exercise the greatest degree of vigilance and readiness
to act wherever we observe violations of the general public interest and any
deficiency or fault in the administrative
institutions, bodies, or departments charged with its protection.
May we
with Divine wisdom and in a true spirit of professional integrity rise to the
task.
LOR