Historical Background and Legal Status of Domestic Property

The status of Domestic Property in the Ionian Islands, dates back to in the period of the Anglo-Saxon Empire and is one of the oldest institutions in Greece with a long-standing presence, much older than the foundation of the Greek State.

With the Treaty of Paris in 1815, the Ionian Islands were recognised as a free and independent state called the «United State of the Ionian Islands» and came under the protection of the British Crown. This new state had a General Administration based in Corfu and local governments headed by «prefects» and «provincial councils». In other words, each island was, as it were, an independent unit of a federal state, and public property was owned by each island separately (i.e. the presumption of ownership was not as it is today in favour of the State), administered by local lords, with an obligation to contribute part of the respective revenues to the General Fund of the Ionian State. This property of each island was called «epichorios» or «domarios» property. These are derived from the «Constitution of the United State of the Ionian Islands» of 1817, which granted the Ionian Islands full self-government. In application of the principles of the Constitution of 1817, the 11/8/1834 CST «Act of the Senate» (Official Gazette of the United State of the Ionian Islands No. 191 of 1834) explicitly distinguished the local economy of each island from the general economy of the federal state (Art. 5), defined the revenues of the public treasury (No. 6) and recognised the ownership by the local government of each island of the non-private estates located therein. It follows from the Constitution of the Ionian State of 1817 and from Acts KF of the Fifth Senate (1834) and I of the Eighth Senate (1845), adopted on the basis of the Constitution, that all land, in so far as there is no private ownership of it, belongs to the communal or domestic property of each island.

The Domestic Property of each Ionian Island, including that of Kythera, was recognized and preserved by the provisions of articles 10, 11, 13 and 14 of Law PN/1866 of the Greek State «On the introduction in Ionian Islands of the legislation in force in the rest of the Kingdom», enacted after the Union of the Ionian Islands with Greece, which preserved and explicitly recognized the domestic properties of the Ionian Islands and simply delegated their administration (No. 11) to a committee, until a separate law for each island would regulate their (i.e. the properties) distribution «by demes». Indeed, after this Law, special laws were issued for most of the Ionian Islands, according to which their domestic properties were dissolved and distributed by demoi and provinces, according to their population, but without the individual elements of these properties being transferred to the Greek State. Such laws were issued for Lefkada, Zakynthos, Kefalonia and Corfu. However, no similar law was issued for Kythera, nor for Ithaca and Paxos. Therefore, for Kythera and Antikythera, the above legal status continued to exist, as it was formed by the Constitution of the Ionian State, the aforementioned Acts of the E Senate of 1834 and the E Senate of 1845 and recognized and maintained by the Greek State by virtue of the Law PN of 1866.

Thus, according to the foregoing, the direct, exclusive and indisputable ownership, possession and possession of the «Domestic Property of Kythera and Antikythera» includes all properties of any nature located in Kythera and Antikythera that are not owned by private persons, abandoned properties, mountains, forests, coasts (beach, beach and the old beach), the islands, all the movable and immovable property of the Holy Shrines and any general property or part of the land of the two islands, which by analogy in other areas of the State constitutes property of the State, given that in Kythera there is no presumed State property, as was explicitly clarified by the provision of Article 62 of Law No. 998/1979 (forestry law).

In particular, as regards forests, it should be clarified that, on the basis of the 721/1991 Opinion of the Legal Council of the State, «in the Ionian Islands, before their union with Greece, there were no public forests and woodlands as property of the United State of the Ionian Islands, so that they would come by succession, with the union in 1864, to the Greek State...

Thus, public lands and even forests and woodland or grassland, as the property of the United State of the Ionian Islands, did not exist, nor are they provided for in the above Constitution (of 1817)... Therefore, the Greek State has no right of ownership over the forests and forest or grassland areas of the Ionian Islands, since at the time of their union with Greece it received none, neither as the successor of the United State of the Ionian Islands, which, as stated above, had no public lands and indeed no forests or forest or grassland areas in its possession, nor subsequently from the epochal property, since it was distributed among the municipalities of each island (pp. except for Kythera). Therefore, the presumption of ownership in favour of the Greek State cannot be applied to the forests and forest or grassland areas of the Ionian Islands... In consequence of the above, in relation to the forests and woodland or grassland areas of the Ionian Islands, it is not sufficient for the Greek State alone to invoke and, in the event of a dispute, to prove the forest form of the claimed area in order to establish its right of ownership over it, but the invocation and, in case of dispute, proof of the acquisition of ownership by the State in one of the ways of acquisition of ownership provided for by the Ionian Civil Code or, since 23-2-1946, by the Civil Code or by a special law, is required. Since, therefore, in the Ionian Islands, Kythera and Antikythera the presumption of ownership in favour of the State does not apply to the forests and woodland or grassland located there, it follows that the State must manage as public only those forests and woodland or grassland for which it has legal title...». On the status of forests see below.

Subsequent Laws subsequent to PN/1866 specifically regulated the management of the domestic property of Kythera (LAW 2355/1920, LAW 617/1941, LAW 514/1943). These laws in no way altered the ownership of domestic property and merely regulated, on occasion, matters of its administration and management.

Regarding the ownership of the Holy Shrines, reference should be made to the peculiar local «revolution» that took place in Kythera in 1799 and during which the common people demanded from the island's lords to take over the administration of the Monasteries. At the end of the year 1799 (28 December) the «prefects and judges» of Kythera came to the office of the public notary of Mylopotamos, confirmed their decision «at the just demand of the common people» and with their notarial act «handed over the monastery of Panagia Myrtidiotissa and I.The monastery of St. Nicholas in Avlemonas (as well as all their movable and immovable property) to the inhabitants of the island with the aim of establishing a common administration for common use and worship». At the same time they acknowledged that the monastery of Myrtidiotissa had always been a common property of all the inhabitants, «however, its administration was monopolized (until then) by the nobles». Consequently, since 1799 at least, there is no reference, from which it can be presumed that there was a period of pure administration of the Myrtidiotissa Shrine by the local Church, but the administration was always exercised by laymen, the nobles or (after 1799) by the administration committee and even revolutionary right (see below).

The Current Legal Framework

With the Law 1416/1984 and according to Article 84, the Domestic Property of the islands of Kythera and Antikythera was defined as the inter-community property of the local authorities of Kythera and Antikythera and includes:

• All areas of the islands, whether they are common forest or grassland, or agricultural or urban or any other category of real estate, which are not owned by private persons or, on the basis of legal titles of ownership, by the State, by legal persons under private or public law or by individual communities.
• The movable and immovable property of the holy shrines of the Virgin Mary of Myrtidiotissa, Agia Moni and St. John of the Cremno and the chapels belonging to them.
• The islands that are located around Kythera.

Further, with the DECREE 272/85 shall lay down the operating procedures of the Commission.

The need to adapt the legal framework of the Domestic Property to Law 2539/1997 (Kapodistrias Law) was solved by the DECREE 138/2004 (Government Gazette 99A), which made the necessary amendments, given that all previous legal texts concerning the Commission had been drafted on the basis of the existence of 14 Communities in Kythera and Antikythera, which were replaced by one Municipality with the «Kapodistrias» Law, while the Antikythera Community remained unchanged.

This Decree (138/2004) regulates the organizational and functional relations of the Municipality of Kythera and the Community of Antikythera with the Domestic Property Committee, following the changes of the «Kapodistrias» Law.

According to Law 3208/03 (Article 10/III/para. 3) stipulates that the State does not claim ownership rights to forests and forest areas in general which have been transferred to the Commission of the Property of Kythera and Antikythera according to the provisions of Article 84 of Law 1416/84.

By paragraph 7a of article 16 of Law 2946/2001 stipulates that: within the true meaning of point (a) of paragraph (a) 1 of Article 84 of Law 1416/1984 (Government Gazette 18A), provided that in the true meaning of Article 84(1) of Law 1416/1984 (Government Gazette 18A). «common land» belonging to the Domestic Property of the Kythera and Antikythera Islands shall be understood as common property, as defined in particular in Article 967 of the Civil Code, namely waters with a free and perpetual flow, roads, squares, yards, harbours and bays, the banks of navigable rivers, large lakes and their shores. Article 968 of the Civil Code stipulates that common property, if it does not belong to a municipality or community, or if the law does not stipulate otherwise, belongs to the public. However, especially in the case of Kythera and Antikythera, none of what is referred to as common property belongs to the public, but exclusively to the Commission of the Property Commission..

According to par. 15 of article 283 of Law 3852/2010 (Kallikrates) (Government Gazette 87A/07-06-2010) stipulates that the N.P.D.D. «Domestic Property of Kythera and Antikythera» continues to exercise its functions in accordance with the specific legislation that determines its operation.

Further, in Article 44 par. 5 of Law 3979/2011 «On e-government and other provisions» (Government Gazette A 138/16-06-2011) provides the following:

In paragraph 15 of article 283 of Law No. 3852/ 2010, the following subparagraphs are added: «By a presidential decree issued until 31.12.2011, on the proposal of the Minister of Interior, Decentralisation and Electronic Government, the provisions of p.d. 272/1985 (A’ 101), as amended and in force by p.d. 138/2004 (A’ 99), shall be adapted to the provisions of Article 1 par. 2, case 5.2 A/4 and the other provisions of this law, related to the administration and operation, as well as the financial administration and management of the Domestic Property Committee of Kythera and Antikythera and regulate the organizational and operational relations of the Municipality of Kythera with the Domestic Property Committee.

The term of office of the chairman and the members of the Domestic Property Committee and the Ecclesiastical Councils of the Holy Shrines, as defined in Article 18 of the Presidential Decree 272/1985, as amended and in force, shall be extended and shall expire after one month from the publication of the above Presidential Decree. The provisions relating to the financial administration and management of municipalities shall also apply to the financial administration and management of the «Domestic Property Committee».

See also the relevant link to an article by Professor Emeritus George Kasimatis on the institution of Domestic Assets below:

Read also:

1. Article about the Eparchial Property in the Ionian Islands by Ilias Marselos [Below]