Hello and welcome to the intelligence on Economist Radio. I'm your host Shashank

Joshi standing in for Jason Palmer, who will be back here tomorrow. Every weekday, we provide

you with a fresh perspective on the events that are shaping the world. Possession may be nine-tenths of the law,

but that last tenth matters a great deal. If you don't own the title to your land, it's hard

to unlock its value. And the absence of robust land rights in Africa has had baleful economic

consequences.

And Japan is famous for its slick and speedy bullet trains, which have carried 10 billion passengers over 50 years. But their slower, provincial cousins have not fared so well,

cutting off Japan's greying countryside from the rest of the country.

But first...

On Friday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died of cancer at the age of 87.

A candlelit vigil was held the following day outside the Supreme Court.

Justice Ginsburg was only the second woman appointed to the Supreme Court after being nominated by Bill Clinton in 1993.

I, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, do solemnly swear.

She was a champion of women's rights, and later in life, she achieved rock star status,

especially among young women.

Now, her death has set the stage for a divisive battle to replace her on the court.

She was born in Brooklyn to an immigrant father, her dad was from Odessa in Russia, and to a first-generation mother.

She was Jewish.

John Fastman is the economist Washington correspondent.

And she was a trailblazer throughout her life. She was one of only

nine women among 500 men at Harvard Law School. And when she arrived, Irwin Griswold, who was then the

dean, asked the women in the class to stand up and justify taking a spot that could have gone to a man.

...