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Bright-Line Fever: Simple Legal Rules and Complex Property Customs among the Fataluku of East Timor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Daniel Fitzpatrick  and
Andrew McWilliam
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Abstract

Recent law and economics scholarship has revived a debate on bright-line rules in property theory. Economic analysis asserts a baseline preference for bright-line property rules because of the information costs if “all the world” had to understand a range of permitted uses, or deal with multiple interest holders in a resource. A baseline preference for bright-line rules of property arises from the cost of communicating information: all else being equal, complex rules suit smaller audiences (e.g., contracting parties) and simple rules suit large audiences (e.g., property transactors, violators, and enforcers). This article explores the circumstances in which a simple rule, purportedly for a large audience, takes on interpretive complexity as it traverses specialized audience segments. The argument draws on two heuristic strands of recent sociolegal scholarship: systems theory notions of autopoiesis, and concepts of negotiability in plural property relations. The potential for complex interpretations of simple legal rules is illustrated through a case study of the Fataluku language group in the district of Lautem, East Timor.

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Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , June 2013 , pp. 311 - 343
Copyright
© 2013 Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

The authors wish to thank Henry Smith, Susana Barnes, Rebecca Monson, and two anonymous reviewers for their insights and comments. The authors owe a considerable debt of gratitude to the people of Lautem and to members of East Timor's Land and Property Unit. Research for this article was funded by a grant from the Australian Research Council (Discovery Project DP0556531).

References

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