EXPROPRIATION LAW, PUBLIC INTEREST, AND THE FORCED LIQUIDATION OF PROPERTY
The Tension Between the Supremacy of Public Interest and Individual Property The right to property, which is a constitutional right, is not absolute and unlimited; where required by social needs, infrastructure projects (roads, dams, hospitals, power transmission lines), or strategic public services, the state’s or public legal entities’ seizure of real estate under private ownership by paying its price (expropriation) is a constitutional authority. This process, conducted within the framework of Expropriation Law No. 2942, is one of the strictest and most formalistic fields where administrative law and property law intersect, as it means the individual’s real estate is taken away against their will. Even though the administration has discretionary power when making a “public interest” decision, the exercise of this power arbitrarily or for personal interests is the primary cause of unlawfulness.
The Necessity of the Purchase Procedure and Price Determination Lawsuits When the administration decides to expropriate a piece of real estate, it cannot go directly to court; it is legally required to first attempt a “purchase procedure” (conciliation negotiations). If the valuation commission established by the administration and the owner cannot reach an agreement (or if the owner does not respond to the invitation for conciliation), the process is transferred to the judiciary. The “Expropriation Price Determination and Registration Lawsuit” filed before Civil Courts of First Instance is the most critical phase determining the transfer of ownership to the administration and the amount of compensation to be paid. In these lawsuits, through inspections conducted by the court and expert examinations, the exact market value of the real estate (land, building, and tree values) is calculated, ensuring that fair compensation is deposited into a blocked bank account.
Urgent Expropriation (Article 27) and the Legal Security Crisis The Urgent Expropriation mechanism, operated in cases of national defense needs or extraordinary situations declared urgent by the President, is an exceptional regime where the right to property is restricted most severely. While price determination and conciliation are awaited in the normal process, in urgent expropriation, the real estate is seized in advance, and the price determination is made afterwards. This creates a serious imbalance that undermines the property owner’s freedom to seek rights and defense opportunities in order for the administration to gain speed.
Legal Defense and Right of Repurchase (Restitution) The aggressive legal practice conducted to protect the property owner in the field of expropriation encompasses the following stages:
- Filing urgent Annulment Lawsuits in Administrative Courts in the event that the “Public Interest Decision” taken by the administration is unlawful in terms of elements of authority, purpose, and subject,
- Objecting to market value errors (deficient or biased square meter valuations) in expert reports during price determination lawsuits in the Civil Court of First Instance to raise the price to the real market level,
- Exercising the Right of Repurchase (Expropriation Law Art. 23) through enforcement and litigation by returning real estate that is not used in compliance with the purpose of expropriation or where the public interest disappears, together with the statutory interest of the expropriation price within the legal period.
Rational defense in expropriation law means saying stop through the judiciary to the state’s privilege of exercising public power crushing the individual’s constitutional right to property and the will to receive equitable compensation.
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