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Law, Property and Ambiguity: The Uses and Abuses of Legal Ambiguity in Remaking Istanbul's Informal Settlements

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  • Tuna Kuyucu

Abstract

What is the role of legal ambiguity in the creation and institutionalization of private property regimes? In what ways does the (ab)use of legal ambiguities affect market-making processes? I address these questions through a detailed analysis of two large-scale urban renewal projects in Istanbul that impose a formal private property regime on informal settlements. My research reveals that without the strategic utilization of legal ambiguities and administrative arbitrariness by public and private actors, private property cannot be easily created and hence capitalist markets cannot function efficiently. My findings challenge the assumptions of several social science traditions such as neoclassical and neoinstitutionalist economics, as well as most works within the law and economics tradition regarding the relationship between law, property and economic development. These approaches to economic development are underpinned by the legal certainty that private property entails as the most important element for an efficient economic order. However, in their unconditional support for private ownership, they fail to realize the degree of legal ambiguity and administrative arbitrariness needed to create the private property regime in the first place. As such their arguments remain theoretically and empirically incomplete. A more complete analysis of the relationship between law and economic dynamics must focus on how private property is constructed, and the extent to which legal ambiguities and loopholes are utilized in this process.

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  • Tuna Kuyucu, 2014. "Law, Property and Ambiguity: The Uses and Abuses of Legal Ambiguity in Remaking Istanbul's Informal Settlements," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 609-627, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:38:y:2014:i:2:p:609-627
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Tuna Kuyucu & Özlem Ünsal, 2010. "‘Urban Transformation’ as State-led Property Transfer: An Analysis of Two Cases of Urban Renewal in Istanbul," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(7), pages 1479-1499, June.
    2. Varley, Ann, 2007. "Gender and Property Formalization: Conventional and Alternative Approaches," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 1739-1753, October.
    3. Harvey, David, 2007. "A Brief History of Neoliberalism," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199283279.
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    1. Rita Lambert, 2021. "Land Trafficking and the Fertile Spaces of Legality," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 21-38, January.
    2. João Tonucci, 2024. "Informality through the state: How overregulation and tolerance shape informal land development in metropolitan Brazil," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(9), pages 1722-1737, July.
    3. Pablo Mendez & Noah Quastel, 2015. "Subterranean Commodification: Informal Housing and the Legalization of Basement Suites in Vancouver from 1928 to 2009," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(6), pages 1155-1171, November.
    4. Esin Özdemir & Ayda Eraydin, 2017. "Fragmentation in Urban Movements: The Role of Urban Planning Processes," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(5), pages 727-748, September.
    5. Joanna Kusiak, 2019. "Legal Technologies of Primitive Accumulation: Judicial Robbery and Dispossession‐by‐Restitution in Warsaw," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 649-665, July.
    6. Fliertje Hulsbergen & Gerben Nooteboom, 2023. "Child Sex Tourism: Ambiguous Spaces in Bali," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 114(1), pages 28-42, February.
    7. Tahire Erman, 2016. "Formalization by the State, Re-Informalization by the People: A Gecekondu Transformation Housing Estate as Site of Multiple Discrepancies," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 425-440, March.

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