Quasi-legal effects of the Law No. 05/L-079 on strategic investments of the provisional institutions of self-government of Autonomous Province Kosovo and Metohija

Upon the adoption of Resolution 1244 (1999), the United Nations Interim Administration (UNMIK) gained the status of the guardian of state owned and societal property of the Republic of Serbia in the territory of the Autonomous Province (AP) of Kosovo and Metohija. For the purpose of this paper, the authors focus on certain regulations issued by the UNMIK administration that were the basis for the creation of a quasi-legal system in the territory of the AP Kosovo and Metohija. However, by adopting Regulations with the force of law, the UNMIK or the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative unilaterally abrogated the formerly existing legal system, thus creating conditions for the establishment of a quasi-legal system independent of the legal system of the Republic of Serbia. UNMIK/REG/1999/24 resulted in the reincarnation of the SFRY-era legal acts. Regulation no. 1999/24 was a guideline in further legal design and normalization of a quasi-legal system in the territory of the AP Kosovo and Metohija. The authors also pay special attention to the Law No. 05/L-079 on Strategic Investments, adopted by the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government of the AP Kosovo and Metohija. The significance of the said legislative act is that it is one in a series of acts that brought about changes in the property law regime concerning state-owned and socially-owned immovable property. However, the full implementation of this Law was facilitated at the time by the adoption of Decision no. 06/134, which provided that all real estate registered in the name of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia or the Republic of Yugoslavia, the Socialist Republic of Serbia or the Republic of Serbia and the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija was to be registered in the name of the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government of the AP Kosovo and Metohija as the owner of the immovable property.