Madagascar: the Constitutional High Court validates the law on colonial land titles

The law retains June 26, 1960, the day of Madagascar’s independence, as the reference date. Any land that was then registered in the name of a foreign owner and has never been transferred to a Malagasy owner must now automatically become part of the State’s heritage.

The provision only concerns land titles that have remained unchanged since that date. The text provides for three exceptions: land allocated to diplomatic or consular missions, those already transferred to Malagasy nationals, and those whose foreign owners have since obtained Malagasy nationality.

The text was adopted on the proposal of the President of the National Assembly, Siteny Randrianasoloniaiko. Before its promulgation, it was submitted for review to the Constitutional High Court by the President of the Refoundation.

A Limited Land Scope Judged by Researchers

The government presents this law as the completion of a land decolonization process initiated following independence. However, its economic and social scope is downplayed by historian Solofo Randrianja.

According to him, the measure concerns only a limited portion of the land exploited or occupied in Madagascar. He believes that the land conflicts currently being addressed by the courts represent a far more significant issue for the population and the country’s economy.

The historian also considers that the law does not address the main challenges of the agricultural sector. This sector remains governed by the land status legislation adopted in 2005 and is still marked by several decades of vulnerabilities related in particular to structural adjustment plans.

The census of the affected lands is set to begin after the promulgation and publication of the law. The practical modalities for this operation, as well as the number of titles likely to be transferred, have not yet been communicated.