LAND OWNERSHIP BETWEEN RESTITUTION AND SYSTEMATIC CADASTRE: FROM LAW TO
UNLAWFULNESS AND LEGALITY
Vasile DOHOTAR1 , Ştefan BILAŞCO1 , Dan VELE1
1 Babeș-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Geography, 5-7 Clinicilor Street, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, e-mails: vasile.dohotar@ubbcluj.ro, stefan.bilasco@ubbcluj.ro, dan.vele@ubbcluj.ro
ABSTRACT. – Land Ownership Between Restitution and Systematic Cadastre: From Law to Unlawfulness and Legality. The study examines the process of restitution and reconstitution of land ownership rights in post-communist Romania, analysing how the land fund legislation and cadastral regulations adopted between 1991 and 2005 produced a cumulative system of conflicts, errors, and unlawfulness. Based on a documentary and analytical methodology, the research identifies normative ambiguities (such as “as a rule, on the former location”), the duality between reconstitution and the constitution of property rights, the lack of cadastral records, uneven administrative implementation, and permissive technical norms as structural factors that produced double PTs, overlapping plots, and discretionary decisions. Applying the principle of cumulative effect, the study shows that the initial dysfunctions amplified over time and were later validated through the instruments of cadastre and land registration, generating an “apparent legality”. The research proposes an explanatory model composed of three mechanisms – the law, unlawfulness, and apparent legality – which provides an integrated interpretation of land-related conflicts and enhances the understanding of the difficulties encountered in implementing the systematic cadastre.
Keywords: land ownership, restitution, land book, cadastre, land registration.