Land rights and judicial uses of "quiet and peaceful possession": Cachapoal River Valley, 1820-1835

Abstract

The article aims to approach the judicial uses of the figure «quiet and peaceful possession» by small and medium farmers of the Cachapoal river valley in Chile (1820-1835). This context witnessed conflicts that were the result of the rise in land value and the formalization of possessions. This research was based on a sample of land rights lawsuits. A representative case study was selected, consisting of two lawsuits that involved a conflict of over 50 years among a multitude of relatives and neighbors. The trials showed that the judicial uses of «quiet and peaceful possession» were conditioned by the specificity of this scenario. In a space without vacant land, with the reformulation of old possession agreements and with a judicial praxis based on the witness testimonies, the litigants interpreted this figure within the dyad of the land that was labored on or abandoned, based on the notion of continuous and ancient possession.