Constitutional Law / Droit constitutionnel
Denmark / Danemark
Professor at the University of Aarhus, Faculty of Law
In its judgment of 7 November 2007 the Supreme Court came very close to ruling that a provision in the Law on non-profit housing concerning trial arrangement to sell housing organisation-owned family homes to their tenants was contrary to Article 73 of the Danish Constitution on the protection of private property and therefore invalid - even though the wording of Article 73, its background documentation and its purpose did not point clearly in the direction of an assumption of expropriation. The chronicle analyses the Supreme Court’s assessment of whether the provision in the Law on non-profit housing had the character of an expropriation. Further the chronicle analyses the reasons behind the minority of the Supreme Court finding that the expropriative nature of the provision in the Law on non-profit housing meant that the trial arrangement to sell housing organisation-owned family homes to their tenants was invalid. And thirdly the chronicle compares the judgment to the traditional approach of Danish courts examining the constitutionality of legislation.
