Land In Vietnam Research Articles

Exploring the Limits of the Judicialization of Urban Land Disputes in Vietnam

Economic and legal reforms have triggered waves of conflict over property rights and access to urban land in Vietnam. In this article I develop four epistemic case studies to explore the main precepts and practices that courts must negotiate to extend their authority over land disputes. Courts face a dilemma: Do they apply state laws that disregard community regulatory practices and risk losing social relevance, or apply community notions of situational justice that undermine rule formalism? I conclude that reforms designed to increase rule formalism in the courts may have the unintended consequence of reducing the capacity for judges to find lasting solutions to land disputes.

Intermediate levels of property rights and the emerging housing market in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Vietnam introduced a Policy of Renovation (‘Doi Moi’ Policy) to restructure the economy in 1986. Under this policy, the Land Use Right Certificate was introduced as a form of tenure for agricultural land and urban land, according to the Land Laws of 1987 and 1993, respectively. However, by 2001, most properties and/or land in Vietnam still did not have a legal title. Although Vietnam's land reforms in the 1990s provided some of the weakest private rights among the transition countries, big cities like Ho Chi Minh City are presently homes to thriving housing markets. Transactions of ‘property without a physical entity and legal title’ in the real estate market show how property ownership can be formed in order to operate within different institutional contexts. This paper highlights that ‘intermediate levels of property rights’ are the driving forces behind the thriving housing market in Ho Chi Minh City.

Payments for Environmental Services in Vietnam: An Empirical Experiment in Sustainable Forest Management

��� This paper assesses the potential for the “payments for environmental services” (PES) conservation approach in Vietnam. This was done by conducting an experimental PES scheme involving sustainable forest management. The work was constrained by the fact that all land in Vietnam is state-owned and that there has been limited PES market development in the country. However, the results of the experiment (in forest areas where the fundamental conditions for PES were met) were quite promising. Participation in the trial scheme was good, despite the fact that it was an experiment of limited duration. Moreover, institutional support was already available and effective. Expected environmental impacts were also observed: the sustainable forest management regime that was tied to the PES scheme resulted in a reduction in both soil erosion and in destructive natural forest extraction activities. In light of these findings, it is suggested that more practical policy/programme trials should be implemented. These will allow Vietnamese policy-makers to gain more experience and knowledge before the large-scale implementation of PES is tried in the country.

Contending views and conflicts over land In Vietnam's Red River Delta

AbstractThis study offers an approach about the nature of peasants and the reasons for their political actions. It examines the views of different parties towards the question on how land should be owned, managed, used, by whom, for whose benefits, and uncovers as well as explains the resulting conflicts over land rights in the Red River Delta since decollectivisation. It postulates that the contending views among parties over decision-making, distribution, and holding of land rights, create dynamics for conflicts, which take place under the form of public resistance, in a number of communities.

The Impact of Land Market Processes on the Poor in Rural Vietnam

This paper examines the link between formal land tenure and poverty alleviation in the context of rural Vietnam. It assesses the relevance of the ideas of Hernando de Soto through the documentation of both formal and informal land market processes in order to identify efficiencies.The findings suggest that Vietnam has made significant progress in extending formal land use rights to agricultural land. However, obstacles remain in the issue of title on rural residential land, including high land use levies, costs of converting garden to residential land, surveying costs and the skills of cadastral officials.Transactions in agricultural land increasingly take place within the formal sector. In general, land sales and mortgages are processed quickly and at low cost by land administration authorities. However, evidence was found of informal fees, requirements for extra documentation, inconsistent land valuation procedures and government intervention to prevent sale of small plots.Where informality survives in the land market, examples were found of its detrimental effects, particularly on poor households: ownership disputes, reduced land values and difficulties in mortgaging informally held land. However, the Vietnamese evidence hints that the 'transforming effects' of formal title can also be exaggerated. Formal land title can cause its own difficulties when plot measurement is poorly executed and boundary disputes arise. The decisive role of formal title in facilitating mortgages is also questionable when banks accept other types of land document and the mechanisms for foreclosure remain complicated.Overall the research suggests that poor people may benefit more from efficient, inclusive and low cost formal land administration systems than from attempts to protect them from market forces. A series of recommendations are put forward to improve Vietnam's land administration system as the new 2003 Land Law is implemented.

Agricultural Land in Vietnam: Markets Tempered by Family, Community and Socialist Practices

Since the late 1980s, markets involving agricultural land have emerged in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. One major reason is that collective farms, previously a central feature of the country's political economy, ended. And a major reason for that was villagers’ everyday politics gnawed the underpinnings of the collectives until they collapsed. Rural households, for the most part, wanted to farm separately. Today they do. Land is not privatized, however. Farming households have land use rights, not ownership. This tempers markets, as do other conditions arising from contending schools of thought in Vietnam about how land should be used, distributed and regulated.

Agricultural Land in Vietnam: Markets Tempered by Family, Community and Socialist Practices

Since the late 1980s, markets involving agricultural land have emerged in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. One major reason is that collective farms, previously a central feature of the country's political economy, ended. And a major reason for that was villagers’ everyday politics gnawed the underpinnings of the collectives until they collapsed. Rural households, for the most part, wanted to farm separately. Today they do. Land is not privatized, however. Farming households have land use rights, not ownership. This tempers markets, as do other conditions arising from contending schools of thought in Vietnam about how land should be used, distributed and regulated.

The allocation of forestry land in Vietnam: did it cause the expansion of forests in the northwest?

Forests expanded rapidly in northwestern Vietnam in the 1990s. Forest expansion coincided with a new forest policy that mandated the devolution of forest management authority. A cornerstone of the new policy was the allocation of use rights for forestry land and trees to rural households. This paper examines to what extent the new forest policy contributed to the observed forest expansion. The findings of three village studies suggest that the new forest policy had minor effects on actual property rights, as villagers resisted its implementation. Instead, forests expanded, mainly due to the liberalization of agricultural output markets and availability of new technology. Changes in markets and technology motivated farmers to intensify crop production, reducing agricultural pressure on land. The research findings suggest the potential of market-based instruments and technology policy to facilitate forest regeneration. They also demonstrate the benefits of in-depth village studies for forest policy analysis, as it provides an integrated framework for assessing the relative effects of political, economic and technological changes on forests.

The Myth of the bloodbath: North Vietnam's land reform reconsidered

American intervention in Vietnam has been justified increasingly in recent years by portraying the North Vietnamese leaders as ideological fanatics who would carry out a massive “bloodbath” against former foes if they were to gain power in South Vietnam. In particular, this argument, which has been promoted in a series of Presidential speeches, draws on allegations concerning the North Vietnamese land reform program which was carried out from 1953 to 1956. The essence of these allegations is that the land reform was a deliberate reign of terror aimed at eliminating whole economic classes and that tens or even hundreds of thousands of innocent people were killed.