OREANDA-NEWS. June 26, 2014. Urmas Volens, head of the SORAINEN Real Estate & Construction Team and with long experience from the Ministry of Justice, is one of the authors of a book commenting on the Law of Property Act in Estonia (in Estonian “Asjaoigusseadus I. Kommenteeritud valjaanne”).

The book explains what the law means, adds relevant court practice precedents and explains how the Law of Property Act should be applied in combination with other acts. The highpoint of the book is its analysis of Supreme Court decisions and their effect in applying the Law of Property Act.

“I was honoured to be invited to join the high-profile team authoring the book. My main contribution was to the sections on the extent of and restrictions on immovable property, neighbouring rights and the paragraphs on water and forests. The update of the book was well timed, as a significant amount of new case law applying the Act and new legal situations have expanded and added new know-how to interpret the meaning of the Act,” comments Urmas Volens.

The Law of Property Act has been in effect since 1 Dec 1993 as one of the five laws that make up the Civil Code Act. Publisher Juura, unique in Estonia in its focus on quality legal materials, published the first comments on the Law of Property Act in 1996, with additions in 2004. The comments in the new book first explain the goal of each paragraph, showing its sources and then analysing the content. Significant attention is paid to how the paragraphs of the Act are linked both to each other and with other acts (e.g. Law of Obligations Act, Bankruptcy Act, Code of Enforcement Procedure) as well as problems in applying the Act in different fields of law.

The first volume of the book commenting on the Law of Property Act was published in spring 2014, covering general comments, holding, land register and property (paragraphs 1-167 of the Act). Publication of the second part of the book, covering the rest of the Act, is planned for the autumn. Urmas Volens contributed most to the sections on possessory, registered and commercial pledges.