The Execution Department issued today a new thematic factsheet on Protection of Property.
The European Convention on Human Rights enunciates the principle of the peaceful enjoyment of one’s property and subjects its deprivation to conditions, protecting a person against unjustified interference by the State. Under the European Court’s case-law, attention must be paid to maintaining a fair balance between the competing interests of the individual and of the community as a whole.
The present factsheet provides examples of general and individual measures reported by States in the context of the execution of the European Court’s judgments, concerning notably: protection of one’s possessions such as pensions, social welfare benefits, bank deposits, intellectual property; access to justice and enforcement of property-related judicial decisions awarding damages; restitution of property in the context of nationalisations and expropriations, as well as compensation for loss of one’s property; the control of use of property through: legal control of tenancies, business licences, urban planning and granting of building permits, bankruptcy, insolvency and/or enforcement proceedings, seizure and confiscation, taxation, reforestation, and hunting-related regulations.
