Who speaks for the land? Gender, property and authority in the Pacific
Online via Zoom
Part of the ANU College of Law Research Seminar Series 2020 series
Lawyers and development practitioners have long been concerned with gender inequality in land rights, and across the developing world significant energy has been devoted to “securing” women’s rights to land, often via various forms of land titling. However this presentation demonstrates that in Solomon Islands and elsewhere in the Pacific, the intervention of the state has not only concentrated property rights in the hands of male leaders, but has reproduced the state itself as a hypermasculine domain. This raises vital questions about the nature of Pacific legal systems and entry points for improved gender equality.
Speakers
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Associate Professor Rebecca Monson »
Associate Professor Rebecca Monson is an interdisciplinary researcher with an interest in law, social inequality, and ideas of 'development'. Her current work is concentrated on (1) gender, pluralistic legal systems, and rule of law programming; (2) climate change, natural hazards and property regimes in Australia and the Pacific; and (3) gender and property rights in the Pacific.
Rebecca’s work is primarily influenced by approaches in interdisciplinary studies of ‘law and development’, political ecology, and feminist thought. She has worked with communities in Australia, Fiji, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands, and frequently provides advice to government agencies, international development organisations (eg The World Bank, ADB, IDLO), and non-government organisations.
Rebecca has led law, governance and development teaching in the ANU College of Law, is a member of the board of the ANU Pacific Institute, and co-founder of the Australian Critical Development Studies Network. She is also a member of ANU's Climate Change Institute and the recently launched ANU Institute for Integrated Research on Disaster Risk Science.
