Law for state land management in Cambodia
Thiel, Fabian
Access to land empowered by law is a crucial issue for sustainable development of a modern, prosperous Cambodia where the social and ecological responsibilities are well developed and embedded in a State Land Management. The State is the main actor in the land sector and has to guarantee State public property which cannot be transformed into private property. Cambodia shows still a high rural poverty rate, land concentration and anarchy in illegal land possession, illegal claim of State land and protected areas as privately owned and unlawful logging. State Land Management in Cambodia must give an answer to these problems. It is an interdisciplinary approach of land policy, land law, land economy and planning law for the use and valuation of land properties (immovable properties). The legal framework for property includes the Constitution from 1993, the Land Law from 2001, and Sub-Decrees. Private property is protected under the Constitution and the Land Law. Only natural persons or legal entities of Khmer nationality shall have the rights to own land. Private property rights ensure exclusivee interests of the property. The essential property form for State Land Management is State public property. This property must be interpreted in the future as the property of Cambodian people that serves all human beings in the country, as a public interest. Having a land use planning system in the future, the Cambodian planning authorities are able to guide and restrict the use of State public property in order to protect and promote the public interest.
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