WERE OWNERS OF UNCLASSIFIED ROADS (HOWEVER) DE FACTO EXPROPRIATED BY THE ROADS ACT 2011?

Authors

  • Frane Staničić Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb

Keywords:

public roads; unclassified roads; de facto expropriation; compensation; statute of limitations.

Abstract

When the Roads Act came into force in 2011, its provisions specified that unclassified roads are to  become public good in general usage in inalienable property of municipalities on which territory they lie. Of course, the question arose whether de facto expropriation of landowners of real estate of which unclassified roads are made of was carried out by this Act. The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia took the view, in its decision in the procedure in which the constitutionality of the Roads Act was challenged, that the disputed provisions of this Act are only of legal-technical character and that they did not establish ownership over unclassified roads. This legal question is of paramount importance for  (previous) owners because it is important (and) in the context of determination whether the statute of limitations for claims for compensation for de facto  expropriation has expired. In the paper the author critically analyzes the decision of the Constitutional Court and finds that it is flawed, namely the author establishes that the Roads Act truly established  ownership over unclassified roads and that the  disputed provisions that were the subject of constitutional control did not have mere legal-technical character. In this context, the author finds that de facto expropriation was indeed carried out by the Roads Act and that coming into force of this Act should be observed as the moment from which the
statute of limitations for claims for compensation for expropriation carried out by it began to run.

Additional Files

Published

2021-02-02 — Updated on 2023-12-20

Versions

How to Cite

Staničić, F. (2023). WERE OWNERS OF UNCLASSIFIED ROADS (HOWEVER) DE FACTO EXPROPRIATED BY THE ROADS ACT 2011?. Collected Papers of the Law Faculty of the University of Rijeka, 41(3), 803–826. Retrieved from https://hrcak.srce.hr/ojs/index.php/zpfsr/article/view/14470 (Original work published February 2, 2021)

Issue

Vol. 41 No. 3 (2020): Collected papers of the Law Faculty of the University of Rijeka

Section

ARTICLES

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