The study focuses on the undeniable significance of the European legal traditions, brought to former Southern Rhodesia/Rhodesia by European settlers, for the legal status of land tenure in the country, the legacy of which traditions still deeply impacts the situation in present-day Zimbabwe. There are two main aspects of this influence: the aftermath of imposed land division and the prevalence of Western legal traditions in contemporary law. Numerous laws enacted unilaterally by white Rhodesians, most notably the 1930 Land Apportionment Act and the 1951 Native Land Husbandry Act, impacted the land tenure in the region. The indigenous African population was undoubtedly discriminated against by these legal actions: numerous acres of the land were taken by European conquerors and those left were of much lesser value in terms of farming and pasture. After the end of minority rule in Rhodesia in 1980, when Robert Mugabe rose to power, new land policies were imposed and numerous land allocations were awarded to the supporters of his regime in the name of removing racial injustices. The consequence was disastrous: the policy led to the demise of once world-famous agriculture and Zimbabwe became ceaselessly endangered by famine. Furthermore, laws concerning the land tenure and husbandry were (and still are) based on European legal constructs, alien to the native population of Zimbabwe. Indigenous traditions were subsequently ousted by the European law and are significantly absent in Zimbabwe today. Nowadays, after the fall of Mugabe in 2017, the country finds itself in the defining point of its history. The question persists: Can Zimbabweans derive useful values from their past in order to shape a new land policy in their homeland that would be just for all its citizenry?
The article deals with the dynastic policies of Charles IV. and his ideas about the arrangement of government in the Crown of Bohemia. It refers to so-called emperor’s testaments where the emperor describes in detail the succesion of the male members of the Luxembourg line and denotes their rank in rule. The pillar of the whole structure was the King of Bohemia, the absolute sovereign over all of the lands of the Crown of Bohemia. The remaining Luxembourgs were to hold their lands as a royal tenure. In this spirit, Charles IV. created a whole new duchy of Görlitz for his son John.
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