Restitution of agricultural land in Serbia: Comparative legal aspects

Abstract

The idea of returning the confiscated property to the previous owners in the Republic of Serbia arose as a process that included all the countries of Eastern Europe and other countries of the former Communist system in which mostly state property existed. Restitution is part of the transition process, which implies comprehensive changes in the state, including privatization of the state sector and market operations on the principles of private property, but also as a need to correct the injustice done to former owners of confiscated property. According to Serbian legislation, restitution is obligatory, but in practice it is very difficult and slow to realize, even though this process realizes one of the basic human rights of citizens described in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights - the right to free enjoyment of private property. In this paper, the authors analyze the possibilities of returning agricultural land, legal regulations and implemented solutions in practice, on the example of a unit of local self-government, on whose territory there is a state land fund that can be the subject of return.