FUNCTIONS OF LAND REGISTRATION ENTRIES AND THE PROTECTION OF PERSONAL DATA

Abstract

The paper addresses personal data protection in the land registration system in the context of the role of land registers play in real property transactions. In the Republic of Croatia, the land register is unrestrictedly public, granting everyone the right to access data published therein, including personal data. The paper defends the thesis that the current system is adequate and necessary for the proper functioning of real property transactions, essentially because restricting public access to land registers would lead to a reduction of the current level of protection of legal certainty, wherein neither the acquisitive nor the publicity functions of the land register could function properly, let alone the protection of good faith. This is supported by an analysis of current European legislation, as well as the case law of the European court of justice. The paper is structured into three fundamental parts. The first part generally explains the principle of publicity and the functions of land registers, particularly the acquisitive function, the function of publicity, and the protection of good faith. The second part of the paper compares unrestricted and restricted publicity
of land registers, using German law as an example for restricted publicity, which however exhibits disadvantages making it an inappropriate model for Croatian law. In addition, the paper also analyses ECJ case law on unrestricted publicity of other registers which demonstrates that European law is not an obstacle to unrestricted publicity of land registers. The third part discusses general rules on personal data protection under the General Data Protection Regulation as applied to the Croatian land registration system, including fundamental principles, particularly the lawfulness of processing. The paper calls for the preservation of the current system of publicity of land registers, which is the only one efficient for providing the appropriate level of legal certainty in real property transactions, without jeopardizing personal data protection rules, although with certain modifications to address the weaknesses of the current system that are critically assessed in the paper.