How the indigenous case of Xukuru before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights can inspire decolonial comparative studies on property rights

This paper develops a decolonial comparative analysis of the concept of property rights, taking into consideration the decision of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, ruling on collective property rights of indigenous people for the first time against Brazil (case Xukuru People versus Brazil, 2018). For this purpose, the innovative method of decolonial comparative law, promoted by Ralf Michaels and Lena Salaymeh at the workshop organized by Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Law on 2019, was used to comparatively analyse private property rights and the collective property right in the Brazilian legal system from a decolonial perspective. The Xukuru indigenous case clearly shows the diverse problems and conflicts that arise when using the concept of property right based on a strong Eurocentric tradition. The challenges of registering an indigenous property in Brazil were identified in this context as a dysfunctional colonial model of private right that obstruct the exercise of collective property in Brazil. Thus, the decision of the Interamerican Court of Human Rights that introduces the concept of collective property rights in Brazil can inspire a decolonial approach in the domestic legal system and serve as learning process for other legal systems that are confronting similar problems.

Buen vivir and the Making of Indigenous Territories in the Peruvian Amazon

Awajun, Wampis, and other Amazonian indigenous peoples in Peru have acquired title to the collective property of their native communities as a legal strategy for the defense of their ancestral territory. This strategy, however, has failed to stop the expansion of extractive industries and the degradation of their livelihoods. In response, indigenous peoples in the northern Amazon are proposing the legal recognition of their “integral territory” under a politics of buen vivir. This new model for territorial governance is aimed at transforming indigenous peoples from ethnic communities with property entitlements to nations with territorial rights. Los awajun, wampis y otros pueblos indígenas amazónicos en Perú han adquirido el título de propiedad colectiva de sus comunidades nativas como estrategia legal para la defensa de su territorio ancestral. Esta estrategia, sin embargo, no ha logrado detener la expansión de las industrias extractivas y la degradación de sus medios de vida. En respuesta, los pueblos indígenas del norte de la Amazonía proponen el reconocimiento legal de su “territorio integral” bajo una política de buen vivir. Este nuevo modelo de gobierno territorial tiene por objeto transformar a los pueblos indígenas de comunidades étnicas con derechos de propiedad a naciones con derechos territoriales.

The Value of Sacred Places

This article explores the neglected topic of the value of sacred places of various religions. The great value that adherents of these religions ascribe to these places cannot account for their public political value, given that the duty to treat such places with respect falls on all citizens, whatever their faith. The article considers and rejects three views regarding the value of sacred places: that they are protected by cultural rights, that damaging them would hurt the feelings of religious believers, and that they are the collective property of religious groups. It then considers the right to religious liberty, which has been argued in recent scholarship on religious accommodation to be best defended through the value of integrity and by honoring one’s religious commitments. Although integrity is too individualistic a concept to explain the value of sacred places directly, the way in which these places embody sacredness here on earth helps enable integrity by showing what one’s commitments are invested in. This view of the value of sacred places can account for the value of non-religious sacred places and for the duty to respect them all.

Nowe typy tzw. przestępstw fakturowych w Kodeksie karnym – powrót do szczególnej prawnokarnej ochrony „mienia społecznego”?

The paper makes a distinction between criminal law protection of collective property and that of individual property. It discusses both the amendments of the Polish Criminal Code made on 10 February 2017 and arguments for their introduction. In conclusion, the paper points to some similarities between more severe criminal liability for crimes against collective property under the communist regime and stricter criminal liability for invoice frauds.

Profit and Profitability and a Look Through the Lens of Smart Cities

This study attempts to understand how the vision of the smart cities (SC) influences the way to understand profit and profitability in the practice of managers, where the context creates its interpretations of solutions and results. The research design throws light on narrative analysis and a discussion of the sense of profit and profitability in the context of the SC. The evidence found supports the construction of new meanings for profit and profitability, which on the one hand is reflecting on the way to share collective property assets, which are immobilized elements in the cities. On the other, it related to a sense that the quality of profitability is an extension of signifier of exploitation of resources. This study has its weakness in the multidisciplinary overlap that originated from the discussion of profit and profitability; innovation and urbanism is a promenade through complex themes that can only be an approximation of the challenges that can be materialized in the discussions about SC.

Collective Property Rights and Social Citizenship: Recent Trends in Urban Latin America

This article argues that efforts to implement collective property ownership via community land trusts (CLTs) in Latin America can be seen as a viable means for reducing socio-spatial inequalities, strengthening the urban poor’s ‘right to the city,’ and enabling more substantive social citizenship. It begins by arguing that, in Latin America, market models intended to strengthen individual property rights can increase urban inequality and spatial exclusion. It then examines recent measures undertaken to reverse the negative impacts of these patterns, focusing explicitly on the adoption of CLTs and how they serve as a means for strengthening urban citizenship. After highlighting the fact that CLTs have proliferated in the US and Europe but not Latin America, we explain how and why a few Latin American countries have nonetheless embraced CLTs. Building on deeper analysis of two cases in the region, Puerto Rico and Brazil, we show that despite the legal and governance constraints of Latin American cities, CLTs can materialise when local authorities join with citizens to embrace these models.

Game Theory Analysis: The Stakeholder Behavior in the Rural Collective Property Rights System Reform (RCPRSR)

The Rural Collective Property Rights System Reform (RCPRSR) is a process of evolution along with the equilibrium point of the game theory. It is also an institutional change involving China’s primary economic system and rural basic management system. This paper used the stakeholder theory to determine the main stakeholders in the RCPRSR and then analyzed the behavior mechanism of the main stakeholders through the method of game theory. The results indicate that the main stakeholders are farmers, village organizations, and government. The Nash equilibrium solution is executing and joining respectively village organizations and farmers. Game theory also suggests that the RCPRSR is a gradual and repetitive dynamic process, not the result of one-time rational design. Based on the conclusions of the research, it indicates that should raise the enthusiasm of the village organization. This can increase the income of farmers and flourish the rural economy of China.