Joseph D. Foukona

Assistant Professor
South Pacific, Melanesia, Pacific Legal Systems and History, Postcolonial and Critical Legal Theory, Climate Change and Displacement

Office: Sakamaki A408
Phone: (808) 956-8631
Email: foukona@hawaii.edu

LLB LLM, USP 2000, 2001; LLM, VUW 2003; PhD ANU 2018

Background

Joseph D. Foukona was born and raised in Honiara, Solomon Islands. He received his LLB and LLM degrees from the University of the South Pacific in 2000 and 2001, and an LLM from Victory University of Wellington, New Zealand in 2003. He completed a PhD on land, law and history at the Australian National University. Joseph was a lecturer for ten years at the University of the South Pacific. He has undertaken research on customary land tenure, climate change and natural disaster displacements and relocation, urban land, land reform, constitutional, and governance issues in the Pacific. Through research, training, and teaching experience Joseph has detailed working knowledge of development and governance, land, law, and history in the Pacific region. His work has been recognized through professional associations, publications, and academic awards.

Selected Publications

Fitzpatrick, D., Compton, C and Foukona, J. “Property and the State or ‘The Folly of Torrens’: A Comparative Perspective.” New South Wales Law Journal 42:3 (2019) 593-980.

Foukona, J. “Political Review in Melanesia: Solomon Islands.” The Contemporary Pacific, 30:2 (2019) 531-539.

Foukona, J and Allen, M. “Urban Land in Solomon Islands: Powers of Exclusion and Counter Exclusion.” In Kastom, Property and Ideology: Land Transformations in Melanesia (2017) 85-110.

Foukona, J. “The Rules of the Game: Legal and Political Influences over Land Access in Honiara.” Development Bulletin, 78: (2017) 21-25.

Foukona, J and Timmer, J. “The Culture of Agreement Making in Solomon Islands.” Oceania, 862 (2016) 116-131.

Foukona, J. “Urban Land in Honiara: Strategies and Rights to the City.” The Journal of Pacific History, 50:4 (2015) 504-518.