Losing in court, winning in the field Land reform between customary tenure, project law and state regulation in Indonesia Réforme agraire entre droit coutumier, droit de projets et droit étatique en

This case study of a land reform program in Sulawesi, Indonesia, illustrates the problematic relations between a technical and social engineering approach to land reforms, and the embedded character of property rights to land. I first discuss the legally plural character of land tenure in the sensitive context of a land reform program. Second, I discuss the ambivalent character of land reforms in terms of their embeddedness: though such reforms tend to abstract from local structures and relationships they also build on them, and therefore, in a way, get crucially embedded in local power relations. The paper shows that law plays an important role in the struggle about land reform decisions between interest groups holding different power positions. Land registration and titling were part of the problem rather than of a solution. They were the instruments through which local and regional power groups could further their interests at the expense of those who were more vulnerable in the land reform process. Ultimately, the limited value of state-issued land titles came to the rescue of farmers who had been damaged by the program earlier