How does increased legibility of property rights shape claim-making during land conflict? We use a randomized controlled trial of a large-scale land certification programme implemented by the government of Côte d’Ivoire and survey experimental measures of behaviour during conflict to understand the relationship between property rights and conflict resolution behaviour. We find that the local saturation of property rights legibility matters for how people make claims over disputed property. When an individual alone experiences increased property rights legibility, it increases their willingness to appeal disputes, given the relative size of their perceived advantage vis-à-vis less legible claims. In contrast, when many community members experience a coordinated increase in legibility, the effect of holding a certificate is balanced by an overall decrease in the demand for dispute resolution services. We argue that as the overall legibility of land rights improves, the smaller the relative power of each individual land certificate, and the less demand for third-party intervention in disputes. Significant decreases in contact between individuals and local authorities in districts randomly assigned to land certification provide supporting evidence. We also find that respondents’ willingness to appeal claims against indigenous individuals afforded protected status by the Ivorian land law decreases in areas randomized to land certification, even though migrant landholders benefited most in terms of perceived tenure security. Our findings contribute to understanding how legible property rights shape land conflict.