Uknjižba prava vlasništva Republike Hrvatske na nekretninama koje koriste jedinice lokalne samouprave
Registration of ownership rights of the Republic of Croatia on real estates used by local self-government units

Author(s): Tamara Mirković-Matulović, Miomir Matulović
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, Governance, Public Law
Published by: Fondacija Centar za javno pravo
Keywords: Public law; constitution; Constitutional Court; immovable property; registration of ownership; Real Property Rights; local self-governance; Republic of Croatia;
Summary/Abstract: By the adoption of the Croatian Constitution in 1990 the system of social ownership was abolished and the process of its transformation into the regime of private ownership began. This process has not yet been fully completed, nor have all the doubts and problems in connection with it been resolved. In our paper, we focus on the problem of registration of ownership of immovable property which has previously been in regime of the „social ownership without registered user“ in favour of the Republic of Croatia. Some of the Croatian courts, together with the Croatian Supreme Court, in their recent case-law took the view that the immovable property which is registered as a social property without indication of the user is not the property of the units of local government (municipalities and towns) under the provision of Article 362 paragraph 3 of the Law of Ownership and Other Real Property Rights, from 1997. If this practice continues the units of local government will lose properties that they have been using for years. In our paper we present the view that the provision of Article 362 paragraph 3 of the Law of Ownership and Other Real Property Rights should not be applied and interpreted in isolation and independent of the principle of legal certainty, Article 132 on the right to local (regional) government, and Article 48 paragraph 1 on the right to ownership of the Croatian Constitution, the final provision of Article 388 paragraph 2 of the Law of Ownership and Other Real Property Rights, and the earlier laws that the latter provision refers to. These legal principles and legal rules must be interpreted and applied in a systematic way in order to find a solution to the problem which will be acceptable from the standpoint of the legal profession, as well as all participants in the dispute.

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