The roof over our heads: Property restitution in Romania

Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics

Volumn 22, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 180-205

  Stan, Lavinia ^a  

^a ST FRANCIS XAVIER UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

COMMUNISM; HUMAN RIGHTS; LEGISLATION; POLITICAL SYSTEM;

EURASIA; EUROPE; ROMANIA; SOUTHERN EUROPE;

EID: 33646795677     PISSN: 13523279     EISSN: 17439116     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13523270600661011     Document Type: Article

References (72)

1. The studies of post-communist transitional justice are too numerous to be listed here. For comparative approaches, see Neil Kritz (ed.), Transitional Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon with Former Regimes (Washington, DC: United States Institute for Peace Press, 1995)
2. Tina Rosenberg, The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts after Communism (New York: Vintage Books, 1995)
3. Alexandra Barahona de Brito, Carmen Gonzalez-Enriquez and Paloma Aguilar (eds.), The Politics of Memory: Transitional Justice in Democratizing Societies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp.218-74
4. and Noel Calhoun, Dilemmas of Justice in Eastern Europe's Democratic Transitions (New York: Palgrave, 2004).
5. See Katherine Verdery, 'Fuzzy Property: Rights, Power and Identity in Transylvania's Decollectivization', in Michael Burawoy and Katherine Verdery (eds.), Uncertain Transitions: Ethnographies of Change in the Postsocialist World (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999), pp.53-81
6. Katherine Verdery, The Vanishing Hectare: Property and Value in Postsocialist Transylvania (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003)
7. David Kideckel, 'Once Again the Land: Decollectivization and Social Conflict in Rural Romania', in Hermine DeSoto and David Anderson (eds.), The Curtain Rises: Rethinking Culture, Ideology and the State in Eastern Europe (Atlantic Highlands: Humanities Press, 1993), pp.88-106
8. Olga Smidova, 'Propriété et quasi-propriété immobilières sous le socialisme et leurs mutations post-socialistes', Cahiers du CeFRes, Vol.11 (1997), pp.129-58
9. Filippo Zerilli, 'Sentiments and/as Property Rights: Restitution and Conflict in Post-Socialist Romania', Focaal: Journal of Anthropology, Vol.39 (2002), pp.57-71
10. Damiana Oţoiu, 'Mémoire du communisme, acteurs du postcommunisme: Les associations des propriétaires et des locataires des immeubles nationalizés' (MA thesis, University of Bucharest, 2004)
11. Karin Dawidson, 'Property Fragmentation, Redistribution of Land and Housing during the Romanian Democratisation Process' (doctoral dissertation, Uppsala University, Sweden, 2004)
12. Liviu Chelcea, 'Ancestors, Domestic Groups and the Socialist State: Housing Nationalization and Restitution in Romania', Contemporary Studies in Society and History, Vol.45 (2003), pp.714-40
13. Liviu Chelcea, 'State, Kinship and Urban Transformations during and after Housing Nationalization (Bucharest, Romania, 1945-2004)' (doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan, 2004).
14. Kritz, Transitional Justice, pp.569-87.
15. Ibid., pp.38-42.
16. Ibid., pp.600-1 and 640-4.
17. Karl Jaspers, The Question of Human Guilt, trans. E.B. Ashton (New York: Dial Press, 1947), pp.36, 76.
18. John Borneman, Settling Accounts: Violence, Justice and Accountability in Postsocialist Europe (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997).
19. 'Stenograma şedinţei Senatului din 2 iunie 1994', Monitorul Oficial al României, partea a II-a, 11 June 1994, pp.7-16.
20. Statement delivered at the first International Owners' Congress, Bucharest, 13-17 Sept. 2000, citing 1994 figures
21. see also Oţoiu, 'Mémoire du communisme', p.7.
22. Evenimentul Zilei, 14 Aug. 2002
23. and 'Stenograma şedinţei Senatului din 2 iunie 1994', pp.7-16.
24. 'Stenograma şedinţei Camerei Deputaţilor din 15 iulie 1992', Monitorul Oficial al României, partea a II-a, 16 July 1992, pp.8-15.
25. Both parties dominated the Romanian interwar political scene, were banned under communism, and reorganized themselves months after Ceauşescu's removal. Romania had one other 'historical' party, the Party of Social Democracy, which disappeared after being absorbed by the Social Democrat Party.
26. 'Stenograma şedinţei Senatului din 14 februarie 1992', Monitorul Oficial al României, partea a II-a, 17 Feb. 1992, p.17.
27. 'Raportul Comisiei de anchetǎ pentru stabilirea adevǎrului şi eliminarea suspiciunii, neîncrederii şi prezentǎrii false a unor fapte de corupţie cu character grav, pretins sǎvîrşite în perioada ianuarie 1990-decembrie 1991', Monitorul Oficial al României, partea a II-a, 15 May 1992, pp.2-5.
28. 'Stenograma şedinţei Camerei Deputaţilor din 9 iunie 1992', Monitorul Oficial al României, partea a II-a, 10 June 1992, pp.7-18.
29. 'Stenograma şedinţei Camerei Deputaţilor din 15 iulie 1992', Monitorul Oficial al României, partea a II-a, 16 July 1992, pp.8-15
30. 'Stenograma şedinţelor comune ale Camerei Deputaţilor şi Senatului din 15 iulie 1992', Monitorul Oficial al României, partea a II-a, 16 July 1992, pp.1-3
31. and 'Stenograma şedinţei Senatului din 2 septembrie 1992', Monitorul Oficial al României, partea a II-a, 3 Sept. 1992, pp.10-16.
32. See also 'Poziţia Partidului Democraţiei Sociale din România privind problematica reglementǎrii legislative a dreptului de proprietate', available at , accessed 28 Jan. 2005.
33. 'Stenograma şedinţei Camerei Deputaţilor din 15 martie 1994', Monitorul Oficial al României, partea a II-a, 16 March 1994, pp.2-3.
34. The Supreme Court decision was approved by 21 votes for and 20 against. The Romanian procedure differs from the Russian supervisory review (peresmotr dela v poryadke nadzora) by allowing the prosecutor-general to overturn court decisions without cases being reviewed again. In Russia the prosecutor-general cannot overturn definitive court decisions, but may ask the courts to review cases he considers problematic. I thank Peter Solomon and Alexei Trochev for pointing this difference out to me. For a legal analysis of Iliescu's statement, see Corneliu-Liviu Popescu, 'Influenţa politicǎ în soluţionarea proceselor privind dreptul de proprietate asupra imobilelor naţionalizate în perioada comunistǎ şi consecinţele acestora în cauzele împotriva României aflate pe rolul Curţii Europene a Drepturilor Omului', Revista Românǎ de Drepturile Omului, No.23 (2002), pp.20-40.
35. 'Stenograma şedinţei Senatului din 2 iunie 1994', Monitorul Oficial al României, partea a II-a, 11 June 1994, pp.7-16.
36. Karin E.K. Dawidson, 'Conflict of Interest in the Restitution and Privatization of Housing since the Fall of Socialism: The Case of Central Timisoara City - a Problem of Democracy?', Europe - Asia Studies, Vol.56, No.1 (2004), pp.119-41.
37. 'Stenograma şedinţelor commune ale Camerei Deputaţilor şi Senatului din 4 iulie 1994', Monitorul Oficial al României, 11 July 1994, pp.1-8.
38. 'Stenograma şedinţelor commune ale Camerei Deputaţilor şi Senatului din 7 iulie 1994', Monitorul Oficial al României, 16 July 1994, pp.1-41.
39. Evenimentul Zilei, 29 Dec. 2002.
40. Evenimentul Zilei, 25 Aug. 1999
41. Cotidianul, 3 Sept. 1999
42. 'Stenograma şedinţei Camerei Deputaţilor din 10 iunie 1997', Monitorul Oficial al României, partea a II-a, 11 June 1997
43. and Parlamentul României, Camera Deputaţilor, 'Raport asupra propunerii legislative pentru anularea Legii nr. 112/1995 şi restitutirea unor imobile cu destinaţia de locuinţe, trecute în proprietatea statului', 11 March 1998.
44. The international community repeatedly asked Romania to respect the right to property and consider seriously the demands of the owners whom the communist state robbed of their property. Resolution 1123 of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (24 April 1997) encouraged Romania to settle the problem of confiscated property and amend Laws 18/ 1991 and 12/1995 to include 'natural' restitution and just compensation; Resolution A4-0428 (3 December 1998) asked for a 'correct and definitive solution guaranteeing "natural" restitution or, if not possible, due compensation'. Resolution 562 of the US House of Representatives on the property abusively expropriated by former totalitarian regimes (1 October 1998) called for 'natural' restitution whenever possible and 'just, immediate and effective' compensation.
45. Monitorul Oficial al României, No.75 (14 Feb. 2001).
46. Monitorul de Braşov, 5 April 2001.
47. Evenimentul Zilei, 23 Oct. 2002.
48. Ibid., 5 Aug. 2002.
49. Propunerea Legislativǎ, PL 503/2001.
50. Gardianul, 26 Oct. 2002
51. and Evenimentul Zilei, 14 Aug. 2002.
52. Evenimentul Zilei, 5 Aug. 2002.
53. Gardianul, 13 Sept. 2003
54. and Ziua, 27 Oct. 2004.
55. Among reclaimed properties was the magnificent Bran Castle, the Teutonic fortress built in 1212 which Western visitors know as Dracula's castle. The petitioner asked for US$ 26 million in compensation, if 'natural' restitution was denied: Cotidianul, 17 Sept. 2001.
56. 'Stenograma şedinţei Camerei Deputaţilor din 27 mai 2003', Monitorul Oficial al României, partea a II-a, 28 May 2003.
57. Evenimentul Zilei, 19 Dec. 2003.
58. Adevǎrul, 13 March 2004.
59. Ziua, 27 Oct. 2004.
60. Evenimentul Zilei, 3 Nov. 2004; an ante-contract is a specific legal device in Romania applied to the sale of property and has prospective effect.
61. Adevǎrul, 7 March 2005
62. and Ziua, 10 March 2005.
63. Evenimentul Zilei, 5 Jan. 2003.
64. Among the names revealed at the time were those of the supreme court president Gheorghe Uglean, the minister of defence and ambassador to Prague Gheorghe Tinca, the Christian Democrat minister of public works Nicolae Noica, the Social Democrat deputy minister of agriculture Liviu Harbuz, and Admiral 'Cico' Dumitrescu: Evenimentul Zilei, 22 Feb. and 30 April 2003
65. and Gardianul, 14 March 2003.
66. Cotidianul, 17 Dec. 2001
67. and Ziua, 6 May 2003.
68. Cotidianul, 29 Nov. 2002
69. and Evenimentul Zilei, 28 Jan. 2003.
70. Verdery, The Vanishing Hectare
71. Dorin Dobrincu and Constantin Iordachi, Ţǎrǎnimea şi puterea: Procesul de colectivizare a agriculturii în România (1949-1962) (Bucharest: Polirom, 2005).
72. Jon Elster, Closing the Books: Transitional Justice in Historical Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp.24-30.