[1] The 1839 Hawaiian Bill of Rights, also known as the 1840 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii, was an attempt by Kamehameha III and his chiefs to guarantee that the Hawaiian people would not lose their tenured land, and provided the groundwork for a free enterprise system.
[2] The document, which had an attached code of laws, was drafted by Lahainaluna missionary school alumnus Boaz Mahune, revised by the Council of Chiefs and by Kamehameha III in June 1839.
The document established allodial title property rights which maintained the lands in the hands of Hawaiian subjects to mālama (nurture and sustain).
[3] The Mahele changed the previous land system under which the kuleana (responsibility and obligation) to mālama ʻāina was given by the mōʻī (king) to an aliʻi nui (high chief), his subordinate aliʻi and konohiki who received taxes and tribute from the people who worked the land collectively.
Another third was allocated among the aliʻi and konohiki (chiefs and managers of each ahupuaʻa (traditional land division running from the coast to the mountaintop).
[6] Most of the land was sold by the government of the Republic to settlers from the continental US or auctioned to the Big Five corporations.
It abolished the right of cultivation and pasturage on the larger, common lands, title of which went to the chief, the crown or the government.