Traditional Law Still Shapes Customary Land Management, Global Review Finds

A systematic review of published research concludes that traditional law remains a powerful force in how indigenous and customary societies govern land. The review, published in SN Social Sciences, synthesised studies of the conventions and traditions that regulate land use, ownership, and resource allocation in customary communities, and found that these legal systems have a profound effect on land governance, helping to protect the environment, support livelihoods, and enhance people’s lives.

The authors, Mohd Shahwal Radzuan Alias, Azima Abdul Manaf, and Fatin Umaira Muhamad Azian, addressed a gap they identified in earlier scholarship. Previous studies, they note, tended to examine traditional law within specific local contexts, single regions, or isolated functions, leaving no comprehensive global synthesis of its multiple roles. Their review instead evaluates the literature across five principal functions: land management, sustainable development, enhancement of living standards, stimulation of economic activities, and socio-cultural advancement.

Methodologically, the study used the PRISMA framework to search relevant databases, including Scopus and Web of Science, and to identify the most important themes in the literature. The selected articles cover a wide range of time periods and places, with a focus on countries such as Indonesia and South Africa. The review also examines the historical development of traditional law and its impact on the five functional areas.

The findings point to substantial benefits. According to the review, traditional legal systems in customary land management have a profound effect on land governance, contributing to environmental protection, supporting livelihoods, and enhancing people’s lives in the communities that practise them.

Yet the review is equally clear that customary land management currently faces significant challenges. These include the marginalisation of individual rights within communal arrangements, conflicts arising from legal pluralism, and pressures from modernisation and land commodification. Policy gaps and conflicts between customary practices and formal legal frameworks compound these difficulties.

The authors also flag post-conflict dynamics as a persistent difficulty, noting that such dynamics remain among the significant challenges facing customary land management alongside legal pluralism and policy gaps.

The review’s central conclusion is a call for a holistic and inclusive land-governance framework that integrates traditional heritage with modern approaches to promote social justice and sustainability. As a synthesis of existing literature, the study maps what is known across the five domains rather than testing interventions itself.

For researchers and policymakers, the work consolidates available literature on how traditional legal systems function in customary land management across diverse contexts. It also underscores that the future of customary land governance will depend on addressing the frictions the review identifies between inherited conventions and the modern pressures of legal pluralism, policy gaps, and land commodification.

Subject of Research: The role of traditional law in customary land management

Article Title: Systematic literature review on the role of traditional law on customary land management

Article References: Alias, M. S. R., Manaf, A. A., & Muhamad Azian, F. U. (2026). Systematic literature review on the role of traditional law on customary land management. SN Social Sciences, 6(11), Article 576. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-026-01833-7

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s43545-026-01833-7

Keywords: traditional law, customary land management, land governance, legal pluralism, PRISMA, systematic review, sustainable development, land commodification, Indonesia, South Africa, Systematic, literature