Whose Justice? The Agrarian Reform in the Post Communist Albania and its Impact on the Right of Property

The article provides an analysis of the jurisprudence of the Albanian Constitutional Court on land reform in the post-communist Albania, which highly impacted the Constitutional right of the property of the (legal) owners. It takes a three dimensional approach. Firstly, the article provides a brief analysis of the process of nationalization of the immovable property by the Albanian Communist Regime. Secondly, it examines the efforts of the Albanian Governments after the fall of the communism to redress the past injustice of massive property confiscation/nationalisation. Such efforts had to address two conflicting interests: the interests of traditional owners and the interests of those who possessed and enjoyed the immovable property of the former, either due to formal allocation from the communist state, or by occupation after the fall of communism. Thirdly, it evaluates the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court of Albania developed as a result of such conflicting interests. It finds that both the Governmental reform for returning private property and the Constitutional Court refer to a re-distribution of immovable property in accordance with the principle of social justice; however, the definition of social justice remains plausible. The Court refers to the justice of majority, with the majority including the de facto possessors of the immovable property and not the historical owners who have the legal entitlement in accordance with the Civil Code. The latter, by and large, practically can not use and enjoy their property even in the post-communist Albania, as it was expropriated for the interests of other private parties, under a state established compensation regime with a fixed price, considerably lower than the price of the market.

This analysis is carried out under the lenses of the concept of social justice, as it has been formulated by the Albanian Constitution and as it has been interpreted by the Albanian Constitutional Court, in cases concerning the private property reform.