Land Consolidation in Croatia

Problems and Perspectives

Abstract

Land consolidation is a very important instrument in agricultural planning and in making agricultural policies. It has a very long history in Croatia, dating to 18^th century. However, it was formally made into legislation in the late 19^th century. From then onward, it was rather widely used as a tool for consolidating fragmented pieces of agricultural land. After the independence in 1991, Croatia changed its constitutional and political setup in a manner which made further use of the existing law on land consolidation from 1979 impossible. However, the law stayed in force until the new law entered into force in 2015. Consequently, the institute of land consolidation was legally regulated the entire time, but the law was not applicable. Therefore, no land consolidations were made after 1991. Furthermore, last initiated land consolidation dated from 1989 and it was not, formally finished as the bodies which conducted land consolidations were abolished and new ones were never created. This is why the Constitutional Court had to react and this reaction brought the new law concerning land consolidation in 2015. However, from 2015 until now, no land consolidations were conducted or even initiated under the new law. In 2021, the Government started drafting the new law on land consolidation.