Bernd von Hoffmann Book order

In the context of German reunification one of the most important political decisions which had to be taken was the question how to reprivatize the land having been nationalized during the communist rule. At first the principle «restitution before compensation» was laid down which later on was replaced by the principle «investment before restitution, restitution before compensation» due to the difficulties to attract investors to the new Lands. The first part of the reports collected in this book deals with the legal implementation of those principles in Germany and the question if the experiences gained thereby can be used for a necessary land reform after a future Korean reunification. The second part compares classical topics such as land taxation, land law and land planning law in Germany and Korea. Finally an outlook on international trends in land law is taken.

In South Korea the increase of population and the economic growth together with a shortage of arable land has led to land speculation. The government has tried to encounter this speculation with legislative acts introducing ceilings on land ownership, imposing taxes on excessive land holding and controlling real-estate transactions. These public policy measures are understood in Korea as the «Public Concept of Land Ownership». The Korean reports collected in this book explain in detail this concept and measure it by its economic efficiency as well as by its constitutionality. A part of the German reports describes how the same legal questions are dealt with under German law. Other reports examine the history of land ownership and the reprivatisation of land in East Germany after 1990.