The Constitutional Court has ruled that the Municipality of Ljubljana (MOL) violated the constitutional right to private property by encroaching on the private land of farmers and landowners in the areas of Ježica and Stožice. It confirmed what the affected owners had been pointing out for two years – that this set a dangerous precedent, in which local authorities had reclassified farm tracks as public roads practically overnight, drove construction machinery over them, and even sent the police after the protesters.
Namely, two years ago, the Municipality of Ljubljana, by adopting the Ordinance on the Categorisation of Municipal Roads, stipulated that a number of field paths and private cart tracks suddenly became public roads. This happened without any consent obtained beforehand from the landowners, without any legal expropriation procedures and without compensation. Landowners – including farmers and residents of Ježica and Stožice – strongly opposed this. What is more, because some of them physically resisted the construction of the notorious C0 sewerage channel across their land, they were subjected to violent police interventions.
The Constitutional Court has now ruled that the Ordinance infringed on the landowners’ right to private property, as the Municipality did not carry out any legal expropriation procedure, nor did it enter into any legal transactions with the owners. The petition for a constitutional review was filed by the owners of the land, including Andrej Bobič, Feliks Dovč, Janez Novak and others. The Municipality of Ljubljana must also reimburse the petitioners for the costs of the proceedings in the amount of 1,175.96 euros.
The ruling reads as follows:
“Number: U-1-16/23-25 Date: 20th of March 2025
DECISION
In the proceedings for the review of constitutionality and legality initiated on the petition of Feliks Dovč, Ljubljana, and others, all represented by Klemen Golob, a lawyer in Ljubljana, at the session held on the 20th of March 2025, the Constitutional Court ruled as follows:
1. Article 7 of the Ordinance on the Categorisation of Municipal Roads in the Municipality of Ljubljana (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 99/22), which – under item 927 categorises the public road “from Obvozna cesta to 9992121” (section 716191) in the part that runs along the land parcel no. 2178, in Ježica, – under item 928 categorises the public road “from 716191 to 716194” (section
716192) in the part that runs along the land parcel no. 1607, Ježica, and – under entry 930, categorises the public path “from Obvozna cesta to 9990684” (section 716194) in the part passing through the land parcels no. 1618, 1619, 1620, 1621, 1622, 1623, 1690, 1796, 1801, 1802, 1809, 1841, 1843, 1857, 1858, 1859 and 1874, all of which are located in the area of Ježica, is hereby repealed.
2. Pavel Zatler’s petition to initiate the procedure for the assessment of constitutionality and legality of Article 7 of the Ordinance on the categorisation of municipal roads in the Municipality of Ljubljana, which under entry 927 categorises the public road “from Obvozna cesta to 9992121” (section 716191) in the part that runs along the land parcel no. 2178, Ježica, is hereby dismissed.
3. Petition by Drago Kušar to initiate proceedings for the review of the constitutionality and legality of Article 7 of the Ordinance on the categorisation of municipal roads in the Municipality of Ljubljana, which under entry 927 categorises the public road “from Obvozna cesta to 9990684” (section 716194) in the part that runs along the land parcel no. 1678, Ježica, is hereby dismissed.
4. The petition of Aleš Mrzel to initiate the procedure for the assessment of the constitutionality and legality of Article 7 of the Ordinance on the categorisation of municipal roads in the Municipality of Ljubljana, which categorises land as a public road under construction in the part that runs along the land parcels no. 1975/2 and 1975/3, Ježica, is hereby dismissed.
5. The petition of Andrej Bobič to initiate the procedure for the assessment of the constitutionality and legality of Article 7 of the Ordinance on the categorisation of municipal roads in the Municipality of Ljubljana, which under entry 1548 categorises as a public road ‘Pot ob Savi, from Obvozna cesta to 71627 (section 720641) under construction in the part that runs along the land parcel no. 2054/2, Ježica, is hereby dismissed.
6. The Municipality of Ljubljana must reimburse the petitioners for the costs of the proceedings in the amount of EUR 1,175.96 within 30 days of the publication of this Decree in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia
EXPLANATION The petitioners Feliks Dovč, Gašper Dovč, Janez Novak, Aleš Mrzel, Drago Kušar, Rado Kunaver, Andrej Bobič, Ivan Čerin, Franci Klemen, Branko Grad and Pavel Zatler lodged a petition in which they state that they contest the provisions of Article 7(1) of the Ordinance on the categorisation of municipal roads in the Municipality of Ljubljana. They claim that it is incompatible with Articles 22, 33 and 69 of the Constitution. According to the petitioners, the Municipality of Ljubljana adopted the Ordinance without first concluding a legal transaction or initiating expropriation proceedings with them as the actual and legal landowners of the land on which the public municipal roads or public paths are categorised. The petitioners are the owners of the various land parcels situated in the Jezica municipality. Feliks Dove is the owner of land parcels in Ježica. […] The petitioners explained how they acquired the land and claim that the Municipality categorised it as public paths, agricultural paths or tracks, even though these paths have never been freely used by all vehicles, but only by certain landowners on the basis of agreements for the purpose
of using agricultural and forest surfaces. The Ordinance in question arbitrarily and disproportionately interferes with the petitioners’ property rights. […]”
However, the story of violations of owners’ rights does not end here. The incident where police officers brutally attacked landowners in the area of the C0 sewerage channel construction is still resonating in the public domain. One of the landowners, who wanted to prevent encroachment on his land, found himself handcuffed in a police vehicle after the police had subdued him in an extremely brutal manner – they pulled his legs out from under him, lifted him up and then threw him to the ground. The injured man had to be admitted to the Ljubljana University Medical Centre, where he was kept for observation due to his injuries.
The police also issued a fine and the owner filed a complaint against the police.
The story is not over yet
The C0 sewerage channel is a project that has been beset by a number of professional, legal and environmental controversies – and, above all, resistance from the local population, who are fighting to protect their land, drinking water and constitutional rights. But it is also an example of how the Municipality of Ljubljana, under the leadership of Mayor Zoran Janković, is treating private owners and the natural environment with contempt. This is a story of abuse of political and legal power, where the authorities encroach on private property without a legal basis, without consent and without respect for basic human rights.
The Constitutional Court’s decision sends a message: the authorities are not above the law, and private property remains a fundamental constitutional right.
Sara Kovač
