Private Property and Public Power in the Occupied West Bank
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Ronit Levine-Schnur
Abstract
Does an Occupying Power have a duty to protect private property rights of protected persons against acts of its own citizens? What is the extent of such a duty? This paper argues that under belligerent occupation, land disputes between individuals of both sides of the conflict are not a private matter even if the Occupying Power has no direct interest in the object of dispute. Accordingly, the Occupying State has a duty to protect the private rights of the civilians under its control, and to address such private disputes as a matter of public order. The paper discusses this claim based on recent developments in the formation of land disputes between Israelis and Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank. Until the 1990 s Israel’s de-facto annexation of the West Bank’s land (although not the people) was manifested, most prominently, by establishing Israeli settlements over land identified as public property. Following the Oslo accords, a shift has occurred, when Israeli settlers, in a bottom-up process, began to cultivate private Palestinian lands and consequentially claim title based on their adverse possession. The political conflict was transferred from the public arena to the private one. The paper evaluates Israel’s response to these developments and considers the applicable legal standards.
© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Property Law: Beyond Dogmas?
- Articles
- Private Property and Public Power in the Occupied West Bank
- Conflicts between International Property, Family and Succession Law – Interfaces and Regulatory Techniques
- “Regulatory Property Rights”: New Insights from Private Property Theory for the Takings Doctrine
- Affirmative Land Burdens in German, Dutch and Belgian Law: Possibilities, Restrictions and Workarounds
- The historical development of the Scandinavian functional approach to transfer of ownership: a tale of change and continuity
- Book Review
- Current Issues in Succession Law, Edited by Birke Häcke and Charles Mitchell, Hart Publishing 2016, 280 pages, ISBN 978-1-78225-627–4, £ 50,00
- Legal Certainty in Real Estate Transactions, A Comparison of England and France, Bertrand du Marais and David Marrani (eds.), Cambridge: Intersentia, 2016, Ius Commune Europaeum, Volume 147, 134 Pages, ISBN 978-1-78068-298-3, €48
- The Intertwined Nature of Property and Regulation. A Book Review of Regulatory Property Rights: The Transforming Notion of Property in Transnational Business Regulation
- Book Review of J.A.M. A. Sluysmans, S. Verbist, and E. Waring, eds., Expropriation Law in Europe (Deventer: Wolters Kluwer, 2015)
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Property Law: Beyond Dogmas?
- Articles
- Private Property and Public Power in the Occupied West Bank
- Conflicts between International Property, Family and Succession Law – Interfaces and Regulatory Techniques
- “Regulatory Property Rights”: New Insights from Private Property Theory for the Takings Doctrine
- Affirmative Land Burdens in German, Dutch and Belgian Law: Possibilities, Restrictions and Workarounds
- The historical development of the Scandinavian functional approach to transfer of ownership: a tale of change and continuity
- Book Review
- Current Issues in Succession Law, Edited by Birke Häcke and Charles Mitchell, Hart Publishing 2016, 280 pages, ISBN 978-1-78225-627–4, £ 50,00
- Legal Certainty in Real Estate Transactions, A Comparison of England and France, Bertrand du Marais and David Marrani (eds.), Cambridge: Intersentia, 2016, Ius Commune Europaeum, Volume 147, 134 Pages, ISBN 978-1-78068-298-3, €48
- The Intertwined Nature of Property and Regulation. A Book Review of Regulatory Property Rights: The Transforming Notion of Property in Transnational Business Regulation
- Book Review of J.A.M. A. Sluysmans, S. Verbist, and E. Waring, eds., Expropriation Law in Europe (Deventer: Wolters Kluwer, 2015)
