Land rights in crisis : findings and lessons from Iraq

The land administration is considered a key element for achieving economic growth and has a direct impact with respect to land tenure and end-user’s rights on the overall development of a society. This Paper was carried out in Iraq, and was motivated considerably by the current insecurity situation; it represents an attempt to evaluate the essential features of the land administration in relation to the end-user’s rights. Its objective is to understand the changing aspects of Land concetions ,user’s rights, key elements and their restrictions in history and recent Iraqi. This paper focused on the Iraqi rural and urban reforms implemented over previous periods, including the granting of title to land, legislation on joint titling, and other changes in the Iraqi land law; and exploreing what was happening as a result of the emergence of an unstable and the insecurity situations in Iraq following the fall of regime in 2003. From the extensive literature review in the Iraqi case study, the main outlines of the land administration and legal framework were presented, and the paper ended with a summary of the key factors and useful assessing to help the Iraqi land authorities in urban and rural development.