Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 July 2024
Formal conflict resolution is not the principal function of the Philippine Court of Agrarian Relations. Rather, litigants mobilize the court's resources to increase their power over opponents and to maximize gains. A combination of the rights stipulated for the litigants, the aims of the principal and adjunct actors, and the relative power and wealth of the disputants and their allies determines who gets what and how in this struggle. Because the agrarian court exists in a social context where law as norm and the general distribution of power operate to the advantage of the “have” sector, it is limited in its capacity to effectuate social change.
This is a revision of a paper presented at the Association for Asian Studies Conference in Washington, D.C. on March 23, 1980. The author is especially grateful to Kit Machado for his generous critique of the original paper.