1 It was established under the Act Establishing the Land Commission, 4 August 2009. Sec 3.1 provides: “The general mandate and purpose of the Commission shall be to propose, advocate and coordinate reforms of land policy, laws and programs in Liberia.”

2 For an excellent analysis of commercial use allocation in Liberia, see P De Wit “Land inventory and land management planning in Sinoe County” (2012), available at: <http://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/liberia/documents/press_corner/20130916_02.pdf> (last accessed 3 February 2014).

3 Land Rights Policy (approved by the Liberian Land Commission on 21 May 2013), available at: <http://usaidlandtenure.net/commentary/2013/05/liberia-produces-first-ever-land-rights-policy-protects-customary-ownership> (last accessed 24 February 2014).

4 See discussion in L Wiley So Who Owns the Forest (2007, Sustainable Development Institute / FERN) at 62–80.

5 Constitution of Liberia (1847), sec 14.

6 For example, an Act to Grant Certain Concessions for the Charter and Construction of a System of Railroads in the Republic of Liberia, Session Laws, 21 January 1890; also see Sawyer, AThe Emergence of Autocracy in Liberia (1992, Ics Press) at 246–50.Google Scholar

7 Public Lands Law, title 34, Liberian Codes Revised (2004) (1973 Public Lands Law), sec 30.

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid.

10 Id, sec 2.

11 Id, sec 30.

12 Ibid.

13 Ibid.

14 Property Law, title 29, Liberian Codes Revised (2004) (Registered Land Law), chap 8, sec 8.123.

15 Id, sec 8.52(d) (emphasis added).

16 Aborigines Law, title 1, Liberian Code of Laws (1956), sec 270 (emphasis added).

17 Public Lands Law, title 32, Liberian Code of Laws (1956) (1956 Public Lands Law).

18 Culp, R “Sources of Liberian law” (1966) 2 Liberian Law JournalGoogle Scholar 130 at 134: “Prior to 1956, there had been two compilations of Liberian laws: the Statute Laws printed in 1856 and 1879 (known as the Old Blue Book) and the Revised Statutes compiled in 1911 and adopted in 1929.” Culp writes that the first Statute Laws was printed in 1856 but this is inconsistent with the digitized copy on Cornell University Library's website, which plainly states on the cover page: “Liberian Statutes 1847–1857.”

19 Ibid.

20 Department of Interior, Administration Regulation 53 (1931).

21 Act Creating the Department of the Interior, Session Laws 1868–69 (23 January 1869) at 12–15.

22 Hepburn, SPrinciples of Property Law (2d ed, 2001, Routledge-Cavendish)Google Scholar at 44.

23 World Bank “Liberia: Insecurity of land tenure, land law and land registration in Liberia” (report no 46134-LR) (22 October 2008) at 17.

24 Hilliard, FThe American Law of Real Property (1869, Weare C Little & Co)Google Scholar at 60.

25 Public Domain Law, 1857 Statute Laws (Public Domain Law) at 133; Public Lands Law, Revised Statutes (1904 Public Lands Law), chap LXI at 149.

26 The prior legislation notation under the provision on the procedures for selling public land in the 1973 Public Lands Law is identical to that in the 1956 Public Lands Law.

27 1956 Public Lands Law, sec 30.

28 Compare Public Domain Law, 1857 Statute Laws at 133 with Public Domain Law, 1879 Statute Laws at 133.

29 Compare Public Domain Law with 1956 Public Lands Law, sec 30.

30 Public Domain Law, art VI.

31 Wiley So Who Owns the Forest, above at note 4 at 106.

32 Public Domain Law, arts I–VII.

33 Statute Laws of the Commonwealth of Liberia, 1824–27.

34 Huberich, CThe Political and Legislative History of Liberia (1947, Central Book Co) at 415–16.Google Scholar

35 Id at 416.

36 Id at 416–21.

37 Plan of Civil Government for the Colony of Monrovia, 1 April 1841, art X.

38 Ibid.

39 For example, a resolution authorizing the president to furnish the American colonization societies premium land for emigrants: 1857 and 1879 Statute Laws at 221–22, art I.

40 For example, an Act Supplementary and Amendatory to an Act Regulating the Residence of Native Africans within this Republic (Acts Passed by the Legislature 1886–87, 12 January 1888) at 3; An Act Regulating the Residence of Native Africans within the Colony (Acts of the Governor and Council, 1839–47), sec 4; Huberich The Political and Legislative History, above at note 34 at 1492: “That Liberated Africans incorporated in the Colony, and who shall be deemed capable of managing, shall receive small grants of land.”

41 For example, joint resolution “Granting 10 acres of land in fee simple to each male member of the Cape Palmas Tribe in Maryland County” (Acts Passed by the Legislature 1895–96) (Cape Palmas Tribe Law).

42 For example, An Act to Grant Seventy Five Acres of Land for the Anna Morris School of Arthington, and to Incorporate the Same (Acts Passed by the Legislature 1886–87, 6 January 1887) at 3.

43 An Act Pertaining to Bounty Land (1879 Statute Laws), providing at 215 that those who “performed military service” during the colony's or republic's military campaigns “shall be entitled to Lands” in fee simple which were to be “surveyed from any Public Lands, not otherwise appropriated”.

44 Disposal of Claims for Public Lands (Revised Statutes) at 19, sec 1129.

45 Public Forests (Revised Statutes) at 63, sec 1197.

46 No Purchase of Real Estate in Fee Simple from Aborigines (Revised Statutes) at 137, sec 14.

47 Articles of Agreement between the Republic of Liberia and the American Colonization Society, entered into by the directors of the society and the commissioners of the republic, in the City of New York, on 20 July 1848, art I, Concession of Lands, Revised Statutes.

48 Special Proceedings (Revised Statutes) chap LXXII, sec 1385 at 239.

49 Trade and Trading (Revised Statutes) chap LXXV, sec 1421 at 277.

50 Aborigines (Revised Statutes), chap L, sec 2, at 298.

51 Ibid.

52 Cape Palmas Tribe Law, above at note 41.

53 For example, Johnson v Beysolow 11 Liberian Law Reports 365 (1953); Jarkonnie v Akoi 36 Liberian Law Reports 384 (1989); Fallah v Brown Liberian Supreme Court Law Reports, October term 2004, 161 (decided 1 March 2005).

54 Fallah v Brown, id at 162–63.

55 Id at 167.

56 Id at 168.

57 Id at 169: “We have mentioned the above quoted Section of the Public Land Law, which is still applicable in Liberia, to show that it is the clear intention of the Legislature that care must be taken by public officers not to execute any Public Land Sale Deed except upon prior investigation and confirmation by competent tribal and / or local authorities that the land to be sold (in the words of the statute just quoted) ‘is not otherwise owned or occupied … and that it therefore may be deeded to the applicant;’ consent of the tribal or local authorities to be firstly obtained in each such case.”

58 Public Domain Law, art. VI, secs 1–5; 1904 Public Lands Law, sec 1285(1)–(4).

59 Public Domain Law, art. VI, sec 4; 1904 Public Lands Law, sec 1286.

60 Public Domain Law, art. VI, sec 3; 1904 Public Lands Law, sec 1285(4).

61 1973 Public Lands Law, sec 31; 1956 Public Lands Law, sec 31.

62 Sec 1285 of the 1904 Public Lands Law states: “All lands surveyed and offered at auction and not sold may be sold by the Land Commissioner at private sale, payment to be made in the same manner as for land sold at auction; provided that the minimum price of land lying on the margin of rivers shall be one dollar an acre, and those lying in the interior of the lands on the rivers shall be fifty cents per acre, and town lots shall be thirty dollars each, except marshy, rocky, and barren lots, which may be sold to the highest bidder.”

63 Public Domain Law, art VI, sec 3 (emphasis added).

64 Levitt, JThe Evolution of Deadly Conflict in Liberia (2005, Carolina Academic Press) at 137–39.Google Scholar

65 Sawyer The Emergence of Autocracy, above at note 6 at 94 and 107–108.

66 Levitt The Evolution of Deadly Conflict, above at note 64 at 137–39.

67 Id at 31–93.

68 Karmo v Morris 2 Liberian Law Reports (1919) 317 at 327: “Title was conveyed by deeds of cession and treaties. By this method our rights were established over a radius of about forty miles from the Atlantic littoral.”

69 An Act Incorporating and Assimilating the Sinou Native Tribe, Residing in the County of Sinou, 22 January 1876, preamble.

70 Levitt The Evolution of Deadly Conflict, above at note 64 at 137–39; Sawyer The Emergence of Autocracy, above at note 6 at 242.

71 1956 Public Lands Law, sec 30: “A citizen desiring to purchase public land located in the Hinterland shall first obtain consent of the Tribal Authority to have the parcel of land deeded to him by the Government. In consideration of such consent, he shall pay a sum of money as token of his good intention to live peacefully with the tribesmen.”

72 Sawyer The Emergence of Autocracy, above at note 6 at 244.

73 Ibid.