Zambia’s top court upholds private property rights

Zambia’s highest court has delivered a new decision that ends more than four decades during which government occupied prime private land – land that was never paid for and that the state appeared to think it could hold and use, indefinitely. Carmel Rickard, in her A Matter of Justice column on the Legalbrief site, writes that the judgment is of major importance: the judges make clear that the state won’t be shown any favours by the court, and that the government is bound by the Constitution – and must obey the law – just like everyone else.