Securing Access to Land : The Social Production of Property in French Polynesia

Land issues are a relatively old legal and social problem in French Polynesia. However, the economic, demographic and social transformations of the contemporary period have contributed to make it one of the major challenges on this territory, both from the point of view of the family conflicts it generates and the challenges it poses to the judicial institution in terms of handling proceedings. Disputes related to land ownership now cross all social circles in this territory. Requests to end the status of joint ownership of family land (a status that concerns about 57% of the community's land) are the core of the problem, justifying the establishment of a dedicated structure that is unprecedented within the French Republic : the Land Court of French Polynesia (2019). This paper shall present the results of a qualitative research with litigants involved in a procedure for the exit of undivided ownership of family land. The paper shall study the social production of land rights as a way of securing resources in this context, between collective strategies and inter- and intra-generational conflicts within Polynesian extended families. First, the analysis of life stories shows how access to land has become an important and conflictual issue within contemporary families, in a context of multiple crises. Secondly, we shall analyze the social pathways to access property law and justice and then identify the obstacles and levers the litigants use by to obtain land ownership, showing an interweaving of legal procedures and informal arrangements in the ordinary course of social practices.