La pratique judiciaire dans le domaine foncier à Madagascar

In Madagascar, there are land ownership official titles: individual registration and cadastre. The social practice has created another one of equal force: “the little papers.” It is true that it seems to give to private documents (not officially recorded) that are legalized and authenticated an identical legal value to the one of land ownership official titles. This is a social answer to current material constraints to have access to these titles. Nevertheless, the social practice may clash with present or official titles to come (claiming actions for land rights). In that case, the last ones only should prevail. In the past, however the magistrates could show some tolerance towards “de facto situations” without necessarily sanctioning them. An ongoing study on how land conflicts dealt with by the Malagasy judicial administration enables us, on the basis of enquiries and archives perusal to broach the part played by the judge in the enforcement and the creation of legal norms. The result is that the practice of the Malagasy actors examines the relevance to systematically resorting to positive law in national development strategies. Some ways of thoughts for the setting-up of a viable legal order within the framework of Developing Countries are suggeste