Transcript Restitution
Two Decades of the Process of Restitution in the Czech Republic
Antonín Kubačák, Karel Jacko and Libor Tomandl
FIG/FAO International Seminar State Land Management in Transitional Countries Budapest, Hungary, 20-21 September 2012 1
Content
3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 1) 2) “Restitution“ Disruptions of Proprietary Rights to Land in the 20th-century Restitution Aim and Form, Rules and Tools Results - statistics Privatization and State Policy for LM Active Role of the Cadastre Municipal property and Church restitution Conclusion 2
1) What is it “Restitution“?
Restitution “The act of restoring to the rightful owner something that has been taken away, lost, or surrendered.“
• Expropriation “The process of taking process, lawful or not.“ over property, especially real property, of another by any 3
2) Disruptions of Proprietary Rights to Land in the 20th-century
Austro-Hungarian Empire breakup in 1918
1st Land Reform
Economic influence of aristocracy and large farmers was restricted 1918 - Law on Sequestration of large farms 1919 - Confiscation Law (farms>150 ha of agr.land) 1920 – Allocation Law – how to handle confiscated property 4
After the Second World War 1945
2nd Land Reform
• • • • • • 1945 - Decrees of the President of Czechoslovakia 12/1945 Coll. - confiscation of German and Hungarian properties 28/1945 Coll. - expedited settlement of confiscated land 1947 - Law on the Revision of the 1st Land Reform 1948 – February 25,1948 new communist “land reform“ individual land ownership was restricted and suppressed all three stages meant a deep interference into the ownership in villages lives of hundreds of thousands of people were heavily affected 5
3) Restitution Aim and Form, Rules and Tools
• • • (1/2)
Aim:
to alleviate the consequences of previous ownership injustices to improve the care of agricultural and forest land by restoration of ownership rights to modify interests of rural economic development in accordance with the requirements for landscaping and environmental protection
Form:
recovery of the property to original owners or their successors in title 6
3) Restitution Aim and Form, Rules and Tools
(2/2) • • •
Rules:
request could have invoked only by a natural person (not by legal person), with the Czech citizenship, not later than November 30, 1996 former property of a citizen had passed to the state or a state or cooperative organization restitution for one person must not have meant expropriation for other one • •
Tools:
Act. No 229/91 Coll. – Law on Land responsibility for the process of restitution was assigned to new Land Offices 7
4) Results - Statistics
• • • • • Overview of the Land Structure agricultural land: 42,292 km forests: 2
53%
26,598 km 2 water area: built-up area: other area: 1,634 km 2
2%
1,317 km 7,025 km 2 2
34% 2% 9%
8
Statistics on Restitution Proceedings to 31.12.2011
Number of restitution claims IN TOTAL Number of issued administrative decisions Decisions in legal force
IN TOTAL Recorded in the Cadastre of Real Estate
Lodged appeals
IN TOTAL
Closed and almost closed
Completely closed restitution cases
restitution cases
Almost closed restitution cases
Other disclosed restitution cases
IN TOTAL Partially solved Practically uncompleted Practically uncompleted for inactivity of appropriate person
219 505 438 991
429 694 363 375 26 767
219 025
218 218 807
480
238 215 68
Land area that was requested [ha] 1 881 824.86
IN TOTAL [ha] IN TOTAL [ha]
Land area which decisions was made on [ha] Really restituted [ha]
Agricultural [ha] Forest [ha] other land uses [ha] Non-restituted (with compensation) [ha] Non-restituted (without compensation) [ha]
1 777 300.85
1 336 335.34
956 710.98
304 196.07
75 430.28
133 031.79
307 934.23
9
5)
Privatization and State Policy on LM
(1/3) Land Fund of the Czech Republic • • • • established by the Act No.569/1991 Coll. on January 1, 1992, independent on the state budget administers state-owned real estate enters into contracts on leases on state-owned land creates state reserves for road constructions or reservations 10
5)
Privatization and State Policy on LM
(2/3) • • • Land Fund of the Czech Republic satisfies rightful persons´ requirements for replacement land for land unreturned in direct restitution transfers or sells state agricultural land according to privatization projects sells state agricultural land to natural persons – farmers or owners of adjoining plots
LF has transferred or sold more than 796,000 plots in the total area of 547,000 ha in the period of 25.5.1999 – 31.12.2011 (approx. 1/8 of the total area of agricultural land in the CR)
11
5)
Privatization and State Policy on LM
(3/3) • Agricultural land: the intention is to transfer as much land as possible into private hands
(area of 2,700 km 2 is administrated by The Land Fund of the CR)
• Forest land: ratio between the total area of state forests and private forests is essentially unchanged • • • Municipal forests: 4,200 km 2 Private forests: 6,370 km 2 State forests: 16,000 km 2
(area of 13,000 km 2 is managed by The Forests of the CR, s. e.)
12
6) Active Role of the Cadastre
• •
close collaboration with Land offices
in the restitution process -
the identification of the restituted properties by comparing the current status of the Cadastre against the state at the time of the forced and unlawful seizure of properties by the state
within land consolidation •
cooperation with Land Fund of the CR
providing information on properties which can be affected by municipal property and church restitution 13
Cadastral Archives
Land Registry Book
14
Cadastral Archives
Maps of the Cadastre of Lands and Plot protocols
15
Cadastral Archives
Graphical allotment plans and Written proposals of allocations of the land and buildings
16
Cadastre of Real Estate
Cadastral map and Owner´s folio
17
Final document for a decision of a Land Office 18
7) Municipal property and Church restitution
(1/2) • • • Self administrated municipalities Act No.172/1991 Coll., on the transfer of certain assets from the CR ownership to the ownership of municipalities Section 1: on the date of its efficiency, the self administered municipalities became the owners of the Czech Republic properties, which at that time were managed by the then Municipal and Local National (Administrative) Committees Section 2: had the nature of the restitution regulations - the municipalities became the owners of the properties, which were owned by the Czech Republic before the Act became effective and which municipalities had registered in the Land Register at the date of December 31, 1950 The 2001 Amendment to Act has stipulated that as of the effective date of the amendment, municipalities are the owners of those properties that were allocated to them in the frame of the post-war allotments 19
7) Municipal property and Church restitution
(2/2) • • • • Church restitution one of the hottest political topics in the CR at the moment Act No.298/1990 Coll. it only dealt with the return of the most important buildings, which allowed the religious orders and congregations to resume their activities (170 properties directly named in the Act) - rather symbolic restitution in the Law on land of 1991, the lands that could be affected by the Church restitutions were blocked and cannot be disposed until such time as the Church restitution is finally decided long-unresolved unfavourable situation brings about relatively large problems, such as to the municipalities when planning the development of a village, to the Land Fund during the sale of the state-owned agricultural land or to the Land offices when dealing with the land consolidations 20
Premonstrate Monastery Tepla
in 1950 – more than 1000 plots of arable land, forests, meadows and pastures in 20 cadastral areas (villages)
21
8) Conclusions
Restitution in the Czech Republic met its basic purpose Restitution process was successfully completed The human factor and the availability of relevant documents were the decisive factors in the implementation of restitution Restitution as the first step has to be followed by land consolidation as the second and final step 22
Thank you for your attention!
23