ABSTRACT
Romania's land reforms were an ambitious attempt to deal with the need to restructure the economy and the need to compensate some of the victims of Communist rule. This chapter offers a critical assessment of the land reforms that were introduced in this book and offers some explanation for why they took the form they did. It places this examination in the context of debates concerning the role of law in development, in particular, the relationship between state law and more informal, customary methods for dealing with social problems. One final perspective that can be used in interpreting the land reforms is the extent to which they represent a break with the previous regime. The chapter applies this approach to the Romanian land reforms and in particular, the ways in which disputes connected with ownership and future land-use were dealt with and, the wider role of state law in regulating land tenure.
