Insecurity of Secure Land Tenure - Case of Service Tenure formalization in Sri Lanka

The government of Sri Lanka has recognized the title registration as a tool against insecure land tenure. However, global experience reveals that success of such projects depends on several factors. As such, it is of primary importance for the country to investigate the effectiveness of title registration in providing secure land tenure under the local conditions. With the above mentioned background, the objective of the paper is to investigate the effectiveness of title registration in Sri Lanka in areas where service tenure exists. Service tenure system is one of the very complex tenure systems in Sri Lanka and thus allows a better judgment of the effectiveness of the title registration. A case study method was adopted to investigate the service tenure system. An identified analytical framework from a wide literature survey has been used to analyse the service tenure system. The outcome of the study reveals that most of the land tenure insecurity is caused by institutional inconsistencies and also that focusing on individual titling alone would not eliminate these inconsistencies. Key words: Land Tenure; Title Registration; Property Rights; Institutions DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/suslj.v9i1.3740 Sabaramuwa University Journal , Volume 9 Number 1; December 2010, pp 133-145