The Property Claims Commission: who goes to it and the limits of its jurisdiction
Many people ask: is my case for the Property Claims Commission or for the court of first instance? The answer does not depend on the subject being property; it depends on how and when the property was taken. The office of lawyer Ali Barakat, in Baghdad, al-Yarmouk, follows the Property Claims Commission Law No. 13 of 2010, published in Official Gazette No. 4147 on 9/3/2010, for people who want to identify the right forum before taking any step.
Nature and attachment
Article 1 establishes the commission under the name "Property Claims Commission", grants it legal personality, and has it represented by its president or a delegate. The president is an official of ministerial rank holding at least a first university degree in law, with one deputy holding a law degree and at least ten years of experience. The commission works as an independent body in coordination with the judicial and executive authorities and is attached to the Council of Representatives. This name replaced "Real Property Dispute Resolution Commission" under article 1 of Instructions No. 5 of 2010. Its formations, branches and tasks are set by regulation under article 15, namely Property Claims Commission Formations Regulation No. 4 of 2010.
Who deals with the commission
The law speaks to several parties. The original owner whose property was taken is the natural claimant, and the heirs take that owner's place; one heir may act for the others. Equally important is the last owner, the person who ended up with the property after the taking, because the committee may give the property back to the original owner and compensate the last owner, or do the reverse. Government departments enter the case where the property was allocated or expropriated for them. Iraqis abroad are not excluded; the law lets them file through an embassy.
Temporal limits
Date is the first test. The law starts on 17 July 1968 and stops on 9 April 2003; a taking outside those dates is not for the commission. Someone whose property was taken in the decade before 1968, after the July 1958 revolution, has separate committees created by article 24 and run under an annex to the law, not the ordinary committees.
Subject-matter limits
The second test is the means. Article 3 does not reach every property that changed hands in that era, only what was taken by an act of the authorities: confiscation or seizure because of a person's affiliation or views, appropriation with nothing paid, expropriation that skipped the proper steps, handing state property to regime insiders for no real consideration, or an order of the former regime that broke the law. A voluntary sale between private people is outside it, even if made in the same years. The full list with its exceptions is in properties covered and properties outside jurisdiction.
Who decides
Claims are decided by judicial committees that article 4 allows in every governorate as needed. Under article 16 of the instructions, the commission's president may add or dissolve committees in a governorate according to workload and progress, and propose merging or closing branches where committees are dissolved. On procedure and proof the committees fall back on the general civil procedure and evidence statutes unless their own law provides otherwise, and their decisions can be taken to the appeal panel set up by article 8.
Applications after 30/6/2011
This is the most important practical point today. The commission itself stopped taking new applications at the end of June 2011 under article 22, and the implementing instructions confirm it accepts none after that. The same article, however, moved such claims to the civil courts, so the right did not lapse with the date; only the forum changed. A claim brought in court today still rests, on the merits, on Law No. 13 of 2010. The steps are in filing a claim for return or compensation, and for comparison with an ordinary case, the commission claim versus an ownership case in the court of first instance.
Legal basis and sources
- Property Claims Commission Law No. 13 of 2010 (Official Gazette No. 4147 of 9/3/2010) — Articles 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 15, 18, 19, 22 and 24
- Property Claims Commission Formations Regulation No. 4 of 2010 (Official Gazette No. 4154 of 7/6/2010)
- Instructions No. 5 of 2010 facilitating the implementation of the Property Claims Commission Law (Official Gazette No. 4163 of 6/9/2010) — Articles 1, 16 and 17
Frequently asked questions
Is the commission part of the Ministry of Justice?
No. It is an independent body with legal personality attached to the Council of Representatives, under article 1 of Law No. 13 of 2010.
Can someone whose property was confiscated in 2005 apply?
That falls outside article 3, which limits the scope to 17/7/1968 to 9/4/2003.
What is the difference between the current and former name?
"Property Claims Commission" replaced "Real Property Dispute Resolution Commission" under article 1 of Instructions No. 5 of 2010.
Where does someone living abroad file?
Through Iraqi diplomatic missions, under article 18 of the law.
Related topics and articles
- 01Properties covered and properties outside jurisdictionWhich properties the Property Claims Commission Law No. 13 of 2010 covers and which it excludes: confiscation for political reasons, appropriation without compensation, unlawful expropriation, transfer to regime associates, and the agrarian reform exclusion.
- 02The commission claim versus an ownership case in the court of first instanceWhen a property dispute falls under the Property Claims Commission Law No. 13 of 2010 and when it is an ordinary ownership case before the court of first instance: subject, period, forum, remedies and appeal.
- 03Filing a claim for return of property or compensationHow a claim for return of property or compensation is filed under the Property Claims Commission Law No. 13 of 2010: the form, the detailed register statement, and referral to the civil courts after 30/6/2011.
- 04Documents needed for a property claim before the commissionThe documents a claim for return of property or compensation rests on under the Property Claims Commission Law: the register entry, the taking decision, the inheritance deed, and proof under the Evidence Law.
- 05Objecting to and appealing commission decisionsHow decisions of Property Claims Commission judicial committees are challenged: the appeal panel, objection to default judgments, third-party objection, retrial, cassation, and automatic cassation where the State is ordered to pay or return.