Republic of Estonia Act on Establishment of Simplified Procedure for Proving Unlawfulness of Expropriation of Property (1991) Country/Territory Estonia Document type Legislation Date 1991 (2002) Source FAO, FAOLEX Original source RT 1991, 43, 518 Subject Land & soil Keyword Expropriation Human rights Property rights Ownership Procedural matters Court/tribunal Abandoned land/unoccupied land Access-to-justice Legal proceedings/administrative proceedings Land tenure Private land Local government Geographical area Europe, Europe and Central Asia, European Union Countries, Northern Europe Abstract The Act regulates simplified procedure for proving unlawfulness of expropriation of property in Estonia. If a natural person having been the owner of property was forced to abandon his or her property during the period between 16 June 1940 and 1 January 1954 due to escaping from his or her place of residence or the location of property or in connection with refusing to return to Estonia while staying abroad, the property must be deemed to be abandoned due to a real danger of repression. If a person has abandoned his or her property in a manner specified in subsection (1) of the Act or if the decision on expropriation or declaration of abandonment of property has been revoked by a competent state or local government body of the Republic of Estonia, the unlawfulness of expropriation of property need not be proved in court. If the property has been expropriated on the basis of a court decision made in a civil matter, the revocation of the court decision by way of review must be applied from a higher court. Full text English/Estonian Website www.riigiteataja.ee References - Legislation Implements Republic of Estonia Principles of Ownership Reform Act (1991) Legislation | Estonia | 1991 (2018) Keyword: Expropriation, Ownership, Liability/compensation, Property rights, Transfer, Public land, Private land, Land reform, Land tenure, Human rights Source: FAO, FAOLEX