The New Law on Property Expropriation

Overview

Following the decision of the Constitutional Court dated 10 April 2003, numbered E. 2002/112, K. 2003/33 that came into effect as of 4 November 2003, Article 38 of the Expropriation Law (Law No. 2942) – governing the twenty-year statute of limitations for claiming any unpaid expropriation price that was to be paid to a landowner or his successors – was annulled. Consequently, the twenty-year statute of limitations that ran from the date on which the Expropriation Law was enacted, 4 November 1983, was abolished. However, the Constitutional Court's annulment decision created a lacuna in the process for filing a compensation lawsuit for prior expropriations, and the government thus initiated the process of drafting a new regulatory scheme for unpaid expropriations carried out between 9 October 1956 and 4 November 1983.