In Chapter 5, the limits of locally developed institutions are further tested. Palestinian refugees in Northern Lebanon brokered a new system of property rules with the Lebanese military following the destruction and reconstruction of NBC in 2007. Again, the resilience of Palestinian refugees in finding protection after another dispossession from their property is underscored. But the new system of protection came at the price of Lebanese military domination and enforcement.
Chapter 1 develops the central argument, defines key terms, specifies cases, and describes data sources. It provides a theory of property right formation in Palestinian refugee camps.
In Chapter 4, Palestinians discuss negotiations of property rights with Fatah, a revolutionary Palestinian political organization founded by Yasser Arafat and other key Palestinian leaders, in camps across Lebanon.
In Chapter 2, refugees trace the formation of informal property rights in camps across Lebanon and Jordan. In Lebanon and Jordan, an informal system of property rights organically evolved. This pattern of property right formation was consistent with a spontaneous order approach because it was based on easily replicable pre-1948 experiences in property ownership.
Property rights are not supposed to exist in Palestinian refugee camps. At least the existing scholarly record does not predict their presence. After all, why would a marginalized community living in uncertain political economic conditions go to all the trouble and effort of crafting institutions that lay claim to assets in a refugee camp? Yet a routine interview with a Palestinian refugee led to the discovery of formal legal titles inside refugee camps strewn across Lebanon and Jordan. The discovery triggered a new understanding of the potential for institutional innovation and evolution in transitional political landscapes, places that lack a stable sovereign state with the legal jurisdiction to define and enforce institutions....
In Chapter 3, Palestinians brokered agreements with the Jordanian government to create a formal system of rules. Jordanians hoped to control and co-opt the refugee camps after Black September. Though Palestinians enjoyed limited citizenship benefits in Jordan, Palestinians still resisted incorporation and pushed for protection through informal Palestinian practices of title adjudication and enforcement. A compromise was reached whereby Palestinian and Jordanian titling and enforcement practices were melded to protect assets from predation and resist total state incorporation.
The book concludes with a summary of major findings and the exportability of lessons to other communities living in transitional landscapes around the world, specifically Palestinian refugees trapped in Syria during the civil war crisis.
