Legal Acts in English

The Law shall regulate terms, method and procedure for the restitution of and compensation for the property which was confiscated on the territory of the Republic of Serbia with the application of regulations on agrarian reform, nationalisation, sequestration, and other regulations, on the basis of nationalisation acts, after 9 March 1945, from natural persons and legal entities and transferred into all people, national, state, social or cooperative property (hereinafter referred to as "property restitution").

The Law shall apply on the restitution of the property whose confiscation was the consequence of the Holocaust on the territory which now forms the territory of the Republic of Serbia.

The right to the restitution of confiscated property may be, according to the provisions of the Law, acquired by applying the following regulations:

1) Decision on Transfer of Enemy's Property into State Property, on Public Administration of the Property of Absent Persons and on Sequestration of the Property Forcibly Alienated by Occupying Authorities ("Official Journal of the DFY", No. 2/45);

2) Law on Agrarian Reform and Colonization ("Official Journal of the DFY", No. 64/45 and "Official Journal of the FPRY", Nos. 16/46, 24/46, 99/46, 101/47, 105/48, 19/51, 42-43/51, 21/56, 52/57, 55/57 and 10/65);

3) Law on Agrarian Reform and Internal Colonization ("Official Gazette of PRS", Nos. 39/45 and 4/46);

4) Law on Agrarian Reform and Internal Colonization ("Official Gazette of the PRS", Nos. 5/48, 11/49 and 34/56);

5) Decision on Establishing the Tribunal for the Prosecution of Crimes and Offences Against Serbian National Honour ("Official Gazette of PRS", No. 1/45);

6) Decision on the Tribunal for the Prosecution of Crimes and Offences Against Serbian National Honour ("Official Gazette of PRS", No. 3/45);

7) Law on the Fight Against Illegal Speculation and Economic Sabotage ("Official Journal of the DFY", No. 26/45);

8) Law on the Prohibition of Incitement to National, Racial and Religious Hatred and Discord ("Official Journal of the DFY" No. 36/45 and "Official Journal of the FPRY", No. 56/46);

9) Law on Protection and Management of National Properties ("Official Journal of the DFY", No. 36/45);

10) Law on Property Confiscation and Execution of Confiscation ("Official Journal of the DFY", No. 40/45);

11) Law on Validation of and Amendments to the Law on Property Confiscation and Execution of Confiscation ("Official Journal of the FPRY", Nos. 61/46 and 74/46);

12) Law on Confiscation of War Profit Gained During Enemy Occupation ("Official Journal of the DFY", No. 36/45);

13) Law on Validation of and Amendments to the Law on Confiscation of War Profit Gained During Enemy Occupation ("Official Journal of the FPRY", No. 52/46);

14) Law on Citizenship of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia ("Official Journal of the DFY", No. 64/45);

15) Law on Citizenship of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia ("Official Journal of the FPRY", Nos. 54/46 and 105/48);

16) Law on Revoking Citizenship of Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers of the Former Yugoslav Army Who Do Not Wish to Return to the Homeland, and Citizenship of Members of Military Forces Who Served the Occupier and Escaped Abroad, ("Official Journal of the DFY" No. 64/45 and "Official Journal of the FPRY", No. 86/46);

17) Law on Crimes Against the People and State ("Official Journal of the DFY" No. 66/45 and "Official Journal of the FPRY", Nos. 59/46, 106/47 and 110/47);

18) Law on the Fight Against Illegal Trade, Illegal Speculation and Economic Sabotage ("Official Journal of the FPRY", Nos. 56/46 and 74/46);

19) Law on Transfer of Enemy's Property into State Property and on Sequestration of the Property of Absent Persons ("Official Journal of the FPRY", Nos. 63/46 and 74/46);

20) Law on Treatment of the Property Abandoned by Its Owners During Occupation and of Their Property Confiscated by the Occupier and His Helpers ("Official Journal of the DFY", No. 36/45);

21) Law on Validation of and Amendments to the Law on Treatment of the Property Abandoned by Its Owners During Occupation and of Their Property Confiscated by the Occupier and His Helpers ("Official Journal of the FPRY", No. 64/46);

22) Law on Protection of the Total National Property and Property under State Administration ("Official Journal of the FPRY", No. 86/46);

23) Law on Nationalisation of Private Enterprises ("Official Journal of the FPRY", Nos. 98/46 and 35/48);

24) Regulation on Arondation of National Agricultural Land of General Public Importance ("Official Journal of the FPRY", No. 99/46);

25) Decision of the National Committee for the Liberation of Yugoslavia on Temporary Prohibition of Return of Colonists to their Previous Places of Residence ("Official Journal of the DFY", No. 13/45);

26) Law on Treatment of Abandoned Colonists' Land in the Autonomous Region of Kosovo and Metohija ("Official Journal of the PRS", No. 9/47);

27) Law on Revision of Allocation of Land to Colonists and Agrarian Stakeholders in the Autonomous Region of Kosovo and Metohija ("Official Journal of the FPRY", No. 89/46);

28) Law on Liquidation of the Agrarian Reform Carried Out by 6 April 1941 on Large Properties in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina ("Official Journal of the FPRY", No. 9/47);

29) Basic Law on Expropriation ("Official Journal of the FPRY", Nos. 28/47, 12/57 and 53/62 and "Official Journal of the SFRY", Nos. 13/65, 5/68, 7/68 and 11/68);

30) Basic Law on Treatment of Expropriated an Confiscated Forest Land ("Official Journal of the FPRY", No. 61/46);

31) Criminal Code ("Official Journal of the FPRY", No. 13/51);

32) Law on Enforcement of Penalties, Security Measures and Educational-Correctional Measures ("Official Journal of the FPRY", No. 47/51);

33) Regulation on Property Relations and Reorganisation of Rural Labour Cooperatives ("Official Journal of the FPRY", No. 14/53);

34) Law on Nationalisation of Leased Buildings and Construction Land ("Official Journal of the FPRY", No. 52/58);

35) Law on Exploitation of Agricultural Land ("Official Journal of the FPRY", No. 43/59 and 53/62 and, "Official Journal of the SFRY", Nos. 10/65, 25/65 revised, 12/67 and 14/70) - if beneficiaries of the right did not receive other adequate land;

36) Law on Determining Construction Land in Cities and Urban Settlements ("Official Journal of the SFRY", Nos. 5/68 and 20/69);

37) Law on Redemption of Private Pharmacies ("Official Journal of the FPRY", No. 50/49);

38) Law on Validation of and Amendments to the Law on Organisation and Operation of the Credit System ("Official Journal of the FPRY", No. 68/46);

39) Regulation on Revision of Operating Licences and Liquidation of Private Credit Enterprises ("Official Journal of the FPRY", No. 51/46);

40) Rulebook on the Process of Liquidation of Private Credit Enterprises ("Official Journal of the FPRY", No. 57/46);

41) Decree of the Presidency of the Presidium of the National Assembly of the People's Federal Republic of Yugoslavia No. 392 of 8 March 1947 (("Official Journal of the FPRY", No. 64/47).

Specific notions used in the Law shall have the following meanings:

1) "Property" shall mean confiscated movable and real property, and confiscated enterprises;

2) "Nationalised property" shall mean the property which was on the basis of regulations referred to in Article 2 of the Law confiscated and transferred into all people, national, state, social or cooperative property;

3) "Nationalisation Act" shall mean a legal act with a direct effect such as judgement, decree, decision and other legal act of the state and/or other competent authority used for the nationalisation of property;

4) "Agency" shall mean the Agency for Restitution established by Article 51 of the Law;

5) "Claim for property restitution", i.e. "compensation"(hereinafter referred to as the "claim") shall mean a claim which a party authorized by the Law submits to the Agency on the basis of an announced public invitation;

6) "Right to restitution or compensation" shall mean the right which the competent authority grants to the claimant, in accordance with the Law;

7) "Subject of compensation" shall mean confiscated property stated in the claim, for which the competent authority has determined the right to compensation in accordance with the conditions prescribed by the Law;

8) "Compensation basis" shall mean the total value of the subject of compensation determined by the competent authority in accordance with the Law;

9) "Compensation" shall mean the amount of funds determined in accordance with the Law, which shall be granted to the compensation beneficiary in the form of government bonds or cash, on the basis of a final decisions on compensation;

10) "Former owner" shall mean a natural person or legal entity that was the owner of the confiscated property at the moment of nationalisation;

11) "Claimant" shall mean any person who submitted a claim to the Agency on the basis of an announced public invitation by the Agency;

12) "Property or compensation beneficiary" (hereinafter referred to as the "beneficiary") shall mean a person to whom property is returned and/or who is granted with the right to compensation in accordance with the Law;

13) "Construction land without structures" shall mean land with no structures, with structures constructed against the Law and land with temporary structures;

14) Notions: structure, construction, reconstruction, extension, adaptation and repair, and other construction notions shall be interpreted and applied in accordance with regulations governing the construction of structures.