Transnational land acquisitions in sub-Saharan Africa: competing claims and the role of (international) law

Abstract

Over the last decade, there has been a dramatic surge in large-scale acquisitions of farm land, popularly referred to as ‘land grabs’, mainly in the Global South. Roughly two-thirds of these land acquisitions have occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This thesis critically analyses the shaping of legal relationships around transnational large-scale acquisitions of land in SSA. It considers the interaction of domestic and international laws against the background of historical patterns of land ownership in Africa. The study focuses on Ethiopia, though many of the observations are generalisable to other countries in Africa, and perhaps elsewhere. By employing a critical-doctrinal analysis of ..