Alienation of Samoa’s customary lands fears dismissed
The Executive Director of the Samoa Law Reform Commission (SLRC), Telei’ai Dr. Lalotoa Mulitalo Seumanutafa, is absolutely steadfast.
She is adamant that the much maligned Lands and Titles Registration Act (LTRA) 2008 is “incapable of alienating” Samoa’s customary lands.
Telei’ai made the point when she spoke at the Pacific Law, Custom and Constitutionalism Conference in Wellington last week where the issue of alienation of customary lands was on the agenda. “Governments seek the best way forward for the development of their own countries,” she said. “Samoa has taken a leap of faith through the leasing and mortgaging of customary land leases. “Samoa has done so with the utmost respect and ultimate caution to its existing laws and the supreme law, the Constitution of the Independent State of Samoa. “As ‘customary land’ is a measina Samoa; such a move requires boldness in leadership, governance with a clear vision, and faith in the populations that one day, the populations will see to it that ‘All laws are made for the benefit of the people they are to regulate.’”
Telei’ai highlighted five points in her presentation to validate her claim that LTRA 2008 will not alienate customary lands. They include:
• Nothing in the Act allows the alienation of customary land; • The Act expressly says ‘alienation of customary land is prohibited’
• The very limited reason the term ‘customary land’ is used in this Act is that it is only due to the operation of other existing laws • Other related laws that allow customary leases for public purposes have more influence on customary land than this Act
Since enactment in 2008, no court proceedings have ever challenged the provisions of the LTR Act on any allegation of customary land being alienated.