This is an original empirical and theoretical study of the use of law to secure land tenure in the face of poverty, urban and peri-urban growth and changing social structures. How easy is it to replace customary law with individual land rights?; is this the road to poverty reduction and capitalist development, as de Soto suggested in The Mystery of Capital? The result of a research project commissioned by the UK Department for International Development, this multidisciplinary book offers case studies from Botswana, Trinidad and Zambia, and analyses wider issues, including colonial legacies that create illegality in peri-urban areas; the impact of HIV/AIDS on social structure and inheritance; and land readjustment approaches in customary areas. The book will be of interest to academics and policy-makers in the areas of land law, law and development, geography, development studies, land economy and human rights.