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, September

Content 1) “Restitution“ 2) Disruptions of Proprietary Rights to Land in the 20th-century 3) Restitution Aim and Form, Rules and Tools 4) Results - statistics 5) Privatization and State Policy for LM 6) Active Role of the Cadastre 7) Municipal property and Church restitution 8) 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.“ 3 Expropriation “The process of taking over property, especially real property, of another by any process, lawful or not.“

Austro-Hungarian Empire breakup in st Land Reform Economic influence of aristocracy and large farmers was restricted Law on Sequestration of large farms Confiscation Law (farms>150 ha of agr.land) 1920 – Allocation Law – how to handle confiscated property 4 2) Disruptions of Proprietary Rights to Land in the 20th-century

5 After the Second World War nd Land Reform Decrees of the President of Czechoslovakia 12/1945 Coll. - confiscation of German and Hungarian properties 28/1945 Coll. - expedited settlement of confiscated land 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

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

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 3) Restitution Aim and Form, Rules and Tools (2/2)

4) Results - Statistics Overview of the Land Structure agricultural land:42,292 km 2 53% forests: 26,598 km 2 34% water area: 1,634 km 2 2% built-up area: 1,317 km 2 2% other area: 7,025 km 2 9% 8

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 Closed and almost closed restitution cases IN TOTAL Completely closed restitution cases 218 Almost closed restitution cases 807 Other disclosed restitution cases IN TOTAL 480 Partially solved 238 Practically uncompleted 215 Practically uncompleted for inactivity of appropriate person 68 Land area that was requested [ha] Land area which decisions was made on [ha] IN TOTAL [ha] Really restituted [ha] IN TOTAL [ha] Agricultural [ha] Forest [ha] other land uses [ha] Non-restituted (with compensation) [ha] Non-restituted (without compensation) [ha] Statistics on Restitution Proceedings to Statistics on Restitution Proceedings to

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

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 – (approx. 1/8 of the total area of agricultural land in the CR) 11 5) Privatization and State Policy on LM (2/3)

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 5) Privatization and State Policy on LM (3/3)

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 Cadastral Archives Land Registry Book 14

15 Cadastral Archives Cadastral Archives Maps of the Cadastre of Lands and Plot protocols

Cadastral Archives 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

20 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

Premonstrate Monastery Tepla 21 in 1950 – more than 1000 plots of arable land, forests, meadows and pastures in 20 cadastral areas (villages)

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