The Chinese who own no land are rich and the Solomon Islanders, who consider their land so valuable, are poor

Events in Solomon Islands and East Timor are yet another reminder of the importance of law and order to development. Even if Solomon Islander mobs burning down Chinese shops think it in some way unfair that the Chinese are richer than them, they will also realise that there is no point in starting up shops themselves if some mob may come and burn them down.

But law and order is not enough. If the basic structures of civil society are absent, then the forces of law and order just become the agents of a self-enriching oppressive minority. The kind of law and order on offer in Zimbabwe at present, for example, is hardly conducive to development.

Even the gangs who have been given confiscated land cannot be bothered to farm it as they know that if the government can give them the land, it can take it away again.

The example of the Solomons is interesting. The Chinese, who own no land, are rich and the indigenous population who consider their land so valuable, are poor. The same phenomenon can be observed in Fiji. What is going on?

What is going on is that the fundamental principle which is the foundation of the wealth of the West is absent. It is absent for historical reasons but today remains absent largely because people in the West, including lawyers and economists, do not understand what their own wealth is based on.

The prevailing view seems to be that it was a lucky accident that the Industrial Revolution took place in the UK, possibly supported by "exploitation" of colonies and that those countries which happen quite accidentally to be rich should shell money out to the poor. Once that money arrives in poor countries its allocation should be determined by macro-economic and development specialists. The role of lawyers in all this is simply to draft the laws which underpin the central planning.

It is hardly surprising that lawyers regard law as the mere instrument of policy as this is what they have been taught in law schools for the last generation. How can New Zealand lawyers lecturing judges in Asia or Africa persuade them there is a distinction between law and policy when they themselves were taught that there is not?

Lawyers seem to have suffered a loss of faith in their subject and have lost sight of any specialist contribution they might be able to make to making poverty history.

At present the contribution of many lawyers seems to be limited to arguing that we should not intervene to stop dictators massacring their own people and enriching themselves and then, after they have been overthrown, to setting up international tribunals to rake over the coals.

But where the Industrial Revolution occurred was not an accident, it is not an accident that millions of dollars of aid spent in the South Pacific and Africa have produced no result and it is not an accident that immigrant shopkeepers are richer than indigenous landowners.

The fundamental principle that has been forgotten is individual property rights. If there is no structure of individual property rights and no functioning legal system to enforce them, aid money is wasted.

If there is a robust system of property rights, then aid money will be unnecessary. If people have enforceable and alienable title to property, then they can borrow money and set up their own businesses. If they do not, their fate is likely to become employees on UN and other projects.

There is a distinctive contribution that lawyers and related professions can make. They can persuade governments and aid agencies of the importance of property rights and can then take part in the creation of a robust system of rights and a robust legal system. The people will then be free to chart their own development without the constant interference of lawyers and economists from abroad.

The Mercatus Institute at George Mason University, Virginia, has just reported on a land titling scheme undertaken by Enterprise Africa. It reports that the creation of secure land title does encourage people to improve th