Where Law Can Be As Slow as Geology: Trinidad and Tobago Land.

Where the timeline of geology is slow, land law in Trinidad and Tobago seems to be keeping pace admirably. I say this, and I haven't written much today, because I have been dealing with issues related to land. Let me amend that statement. I have been trying to deal with land issues related to land.

I spent an interesting time in a lawyer's office today, going over a case that doesn't necessarily related to me, but one which I have to pay attention to because it is on the borders of the land I have inherited. It's a quirky thing, especially when you consider that things such as land tenancy are passed on to the children here in Trinidad and Tobago. If someone dies, their tenancy becomes a part of their estate. I have yet to figure out the rationale for that; it seems dubious at best. In my opinion, it's a matter of the law interfering with the relationship of tenant and landlord; the landlord ultimately decides who they rent to. Or should.

To make matters worse, there is agricultural tenancy and residential tenancy. Agricultural tenancy expires every year, by law, and is supposed to be renewed every year - which is fine. Residential tenancy works like this: If you rent it, you get a chance to own the land at 50% of the value, or you pay rent - but to enforce the tenant paying rent, there is no real law. That residential land and agricultural land are distinct in law is interesting, but the fact that agricultural land tenancy permits or permitted (there are old laws and new laws) a chattel house on the rented land creates a conundrum.

As I sat in this lawyer's office, I spent a lot of time looking at her books. Perhaps it unsettled her a bit, but I was noting the names of the books, and also noting that the books - though neatly placed - were well used. The books on the lower shelf, older books, were almost hidden in an alcove - the worn covers fraying under duress. The ones on prominent display seemed to be ordered in a fashion which allowed her to get to the ones she used the most - the paperback covered books, the newer laws, were closer to her. The older books, the older laws, were further away. A book on 'Pleading' lay on her desk, under a small woolen covered, zippered container with Native American dye commercialized on it. Underneath, the stacks of folders rose to about 5 inches from the desk, supporting it...

There was no computer in the room. And as I sat there, taking in the scene, the expressed thoughts, the intermingling of the wants of what needed to be done and what had to be done to fulfill those wants, well... it struck me that India had done work in computerizing such areas. That streamlining land issues, property issues, was something that could be done easily and quickly. The frustration began to come to the back of my throat, and I swallowed it. Frustration tastes bitter.

There are people who thrive on the system the way it is. They have a vested interest in not improving it. There is no difference with other systems, I suppose, but when you look at the amount of time wasted over things - well, things become more and more bitter as they are swallowed, especially when there are obvious things that could be done to improve the system.

I wonder how many other countries in the region have these time-wasting problems when it comes to such matters. Certainly, justice and law may not be fast, but I see no need for them to move as slow as the history of geology.

Time.