Property
Unresolved Gaddafi-era confiscations over a civil-law property base
The Civil Code of 1954 supplies the law of property, but Law 4/1978 confiscated most private rental property and redistributed it, and the resulting competing claims have never been comprehensively resolved.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Real Estate Registration Authority where functional. Competing claims from the 1978 redistribution are litigated in the ordinary courts.
Governing law
- Civil Code 1954
- Law 4/1978 on real propertyconfiscation and redistribution
- Law 4/1978 repeal measures and Law 7/1986
- Law 11/1992 on property restitution measures
In practice
Law 4/1978 is the central fact in Libyan property law: it transferred ownership of rented residential property to occupiers and abolished most private landlordism, generating two sets of claimants to the same assets. Partial restitution and compensation measures followed in the 1990s and after 2011 but no comprehensive settlement was reached, so title investigation in Libya means tracing pre-1978 ownership, the redistribution, and any subsequent restitution decision. Registry records were damaged or lost in some areas during the conflict, and displacement has produced further layers of occupation without title. Foreign ownership of land is restricted, and long leases through Libyan vehicles are the practical route for projects.