Cadbury Workshop 2019: Law, Custom, and Urban Property in Africa

The Cadbury Workshop 2019 focuses on law, custom, and urban land and property in Africa. It addresses intractable practical as well as conceptual issues.

We have invited lawyers, access to justice activists and urban experts from a range of African countries. The workshop aims to explore synergies between academic research and experience on the ground and discuss policy implications. At a time when institutions such as the World Bank are emphasising the importance of land titling, we would like to examine the complexities of custom and property in urban settings, as opposed to the rural areas where these themes tend to be investigated. In addition to a keynote lecture by Professor Ambreena Manji on 3 June, which will draw together key strands by focusing on care and property in East Africa, the event will be organized into a series of panel discussions, bringing together academic research and practitioner expertise from across the continent.

This year’s workshop moves away from the conventional model of an academic event, and gives legal and civil-society practitioners a leading role. In the first half of the two-day programme, academics and practitioners are paired in panels to analyse dynamics of law, property, and custom in specific African settings. On the second day, individuals who regularly cross the academic/practitioner divide will draw from their experience on particular projects to highlight how ‘cross-over’ can best be done. 

Final programme (pdf)