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Law, land, development and narrative: a case-study from the South Pacific

Using the vehicle of case law involving land disputes in the Pacific island country of Vanuatu, this article demonstrates how legal forms and fora shape and are shaped by narratives of customary law presented as evidence in a plural legal system where claims of indigenous land tenure have to negotiate the space between pre-colonial and colonial pasts and uncertain post-colonial futures, thereby providing valuable insight into the evolution of law in a specific context and contributing to the wider international discourse of indigenous people's rights, development and meanings and forms of law.