The starting point of the analysis is a stock-taking of the property rights context of Kosovo, whereby historical causes and current manifestations of the ownership, property and housing issue will be discussed, as well as closely linked areas such as land management and property records. Property titles are at the core of current problems. Titling systems will be illustrated from their early stages during the Ottoman period through to the current situation with the establishment of the Kosovo Cadastral Agency (KCA). Subsequently, the concept of socially owned property will be considered in the light of the privatization of companies and its immediate impact on the Housing and Property Directorate (HPD) as well as housing and property rights inter alia with the establishment of the Kosovo Trust Agency (KTA).
A comparative and evolutionary study of procedural and institutional precedents - the Iran-US Claims Tribunal, the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) and the Eritrean-Ethiopian Claims Commission (EECC) - and of the blueprints of the Housing and Property Directorate/Claims Commission (HPD/CC) – the Commission for Real Property Claims of Displaced Persons and Refugees CRPR in Bosnia and Herzegowina and the South African Land Claims Court (LCC) - sets the framework, which allows to sketch the genesis of this institution, identifying and analyzing critical institutional, judicial and procedural parameters.
The settlement of housing and property rights in Kosovo by HPD/CC is at the centre of the study. The depiction of the development of the mandate and the intra- and inter-institutional organizational structure of HPD/CC, is followed by an illustration of the procedures governing the settlement of housing and property claims before HPD/CC, and of other regulatory tasks of the institution, such as the administration and allocation of residential property and its rental scheme. New developments with the establishment of the Kosovo Property Agency (KPA) are also taken into account. The final iudicum seeks to verify HPD/CC´s compliance with minimum standards of law.
The scientific paper concludes with an outlook concerning HPD/CC´s impact and prospects for a further institutionalization of the international protection of private property through international mechanisms, such as an international court for human rights.