The nabuurrecht (neighbour’s right) or burenrecht — the neighbour’s right — was the rule of Atjehnese customary law by which the owners of land adjoining a parcel offered for sale had to be informed of the intention to sell and enjoyed, on an equal bid with third parties, a right of preference.
The rule
D. W. N. de Boer stated it thus: sale might not take place without the owners of adjoining land having been informed of the intention to sell; these neighbours had thereby the preference on an equal bid with third parties. He cited De Atjehers, Vol. I, p. 106, and Van Vollenhoven’s Adatrecht, p. 202.
De Boer’s explanation
De Boer offered an explanation with express caution — the right found its ground “hoogstwaarschijnlijk” (most probably) — in the fact that it is also the neighbours whom one has summoned as principal witnesses in lawsuits, and that it is thought equitable that against this burden there should stand a privilege for them. The rule was, on this reading, the counterpart in benefit of the evidentiary burden that adjoining ownership imposed in Atjehnese litigation.
Related restriction
Alongside the nabuurrecht stood the other restriction on the holder of milik: the prohibition of alienation to persons outside the landschap. A non-indigenous holder of half a cleared sawah under thiplah-tano was likewise bound to grant the radja a right of preference on sale.
See Also
Source
Het recht op den grond in Atjeh, by D. W. N. de Boer, dated Scheveningen, November 1931, pp. 59-80. Offprint DLP-141, Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, ‘s-Gravenhage; Bibliotheek KITLV accession 0060 4460 60 081470 428.