The obligation to expropriate only as a last resort

21. Paragraph 164 asserts that there is an inalienable right to nationalize and expropriate property.

The right to expropriate private property is usually vested in the Government, but the laws in a number of countries also extend that right to other entities, in addition to the Government.

The need for expropriating the property may be established at an initial phase, when the intention of the Government to expropriate the property in question is also made known to the owners or purported owners.

At present, however, it is critical to underscore the cultural biases that contributed to the conceptual framework constructed to legitimize colonization and the various methods used to dispossess indigenous peoples and expropriate their lands, territories and resources.

The proposal to expropriate the real estate shall be submitted by the Government following the suggestion from the respective State administration or local government institution, if this institution cannot obtain the real estate upon an agreement with the owner.

But customers do not trust suppliers who cut deliveries, raise prices unpredictably, expropriate competitors, and let production decrease in the way Gazprom and Russia s other state companies have done. As a result, Russia s gas exports to Europe have started declining.

quot To nationalize, expropriate or transfer ownership of foreign property, in which case appropriate compensation should be paid by the State adopting such measures, taking into account its relevant laws and regulations and all circumstances that the State considers pertinent.

In a number of countries, the Government is required to give notice of its intention to expropriate the property to the owner or to the general public by a special act of the Government, as a necessary condition for proceeding with the expropriation.

quot Israel apos s exploitation of the occupied area of the Golan has been characterized by the expropriation of land and the seizure and exploitation of water resources. The occupation authorities have resorted to a number of methods to expropriate land. These include, in particular

quot The apos Al Buraq apos Wall the Western Wall is a part of the Al Aqsa Mosque. The Jews have no relation to it, whether or not a decision to expropriate it was made. quot (Palestinian Authority Mufti Ikrama Sabri in Al Ayyam, 22 November 1997)

In Romania and Georgia, the problem of restitution of goods and properties confiscated under the former regime has been raised (b) In Turkey, a municipality is said to have decided to expropriate part of a Christian cemetery in order to widen a road despite opposition by a Christian church.

One reason why democracy might matter for international currency status is that democratically elected governments are best able to make the credible commitments needed to develop deep and liquid financial markets. They can commit not to expropriate creditors, since the latter will vote them out of office if they do.

The economists commonplace that a monetary union demands a fiscal union is only part of a much deeper truth about debt and obligation debt is rarely sustainable if there is not some sense of communal or collective responsibility. That is the mechanism that reduces the incentives to expropriate the creditor, and makes debt secure and cheap.

A generation later, in the 1860 s, the Civil War between northern and southern states resulted in large part from a dispute about the character of financial burdens amp at least from the South s perspective. Abraham Lincoln s original proposal to end the immoral practice of slavery by compensating slave owners for manumission was unacceptably expensive, so the Union, according to the slave holding Confederacy, was determined to expropriate the South.

quot The United States recognizes that, according to international law, a State is entitled to expropriate within its jurisdiction for public purposes in the absence of contract provisions or any other agreement to the contrary however, this right must be accompanied by the relevant obligation a State may have entered into in the sense that such expropriation shall entail the payment of prompt, adequate and effective compensation. quot