I Book Review: Post-Conflict Housing Restitution: The European Human Rights Perspective, with a Case Study on Bosnia and Herzegovina
| Published date | 01 March 2010 |
| Date | 01 March 2010 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/016934411002800112 |
| Subject Matter | Part D: DocumentationI Book Review |
I Book Reviews
Netherlands Q uarterly of Human R ights, Vol. 28/1 (2010) 137
Despite its shortcomings the book makes for interesting reading, thoug h I strongly
doubt whether e xperts on economic development will agree that it contain s a so far
‘unheard truth ’ as is claimed by its title.
Antoine Buyse, Post-Conict Housing Restit ution: e European Human Rights
Perspective, With a Case Study on Bosnia and Herzegovina, School of Human Rights
Research S eries, Vol. 25, Intersentia , Antwerp, 20 08, xvi + 440 p., ISBN: 978–90–
509 5–77 0– 0*
As a reection of developments in law and t he real world of restorative justice, recent
years have been witness to a g rowing of body of academic literature addressing the
question of housing, land and proper ty (HLP) restitution following both conic t and
disaster. e recent release by Margaret Cordial a nd Knut Rosandhaug i n 2009 of
their very comprehensive Post-Conict Proper ty Restitution: e Approach in Kosovo
and Lessons Learned for Future International Practice1 and the 2007 publication of my
Housing, Land and Property Restitution Rights of Refugees and Displaced Persons: Laws,
Cases and Materials2 are two of the titles associated with this rapidly expa nding study
of restitut ion rights as they play out in practice. Cordial a nd Rosandhaug’s massive
two volume survey of t he Housing and Property Claim s Comm ission in Kosovo
provides in considerable de tail what it took in lega l and institutional terms to secure
HLP rights solutions for more than 29,000 fam ilies in post-conict Kosovo, while my
2007 compilation brought together into a single volume more than 240 legal standards
and case law recognisi ng the right to housing, land and property restit ution.
Sandwiched r ight in between these two texts, and published in 20 08, is Antoine
Buyse’s excellent book Post-Conict Housing Restitution: e European Human Rights
Perspective, With a Case Study on Bosnia and Herzegovina. Buyse’s work makes a
very mea ningful contribut ion to the g lobal debate on res titution and is particularly
instruct ive in revea ling the many complexities – both legal and political – that are
invariably associated with the restitution question wherever it may (or is stil l to be)
carried out. While addressing many of the stickier restitution issues, perhaps the most
interesting contribut ion made by the book is t he in-depth coverage of precisely how,
and to which degree, the various rights enshrined withi n the European Convention
on Huma n Rights (ECHR) do and do not reinforce the contention that rest itution
* Scott Leckie, Director, Displaceme nt Solutions , an organi sation d edicated to re solving cases of
forced displaceme nt throughout the world, Gene va, Switzerland .
1 Margaret Cordial and Knut Rosandhaug, Post-Co nict Property Restitution: e Approach in Kosovo
and Less ons Learne d for Future International Practice, Vols 1 and 2, Martinus Nijho Publishers,
Leiden, 2009.
2 Scott Leckie, Housing, Land and Prop erty R estitution Rights of Ref ugees a nd Dis placed Pe rsons:
Laws, Cases a nd Materials, Ca mbridge University Press , Cambridge, 2007.
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