Expropriation by Default: Environmental Displacement and Judicial Remedies in Post-Socialist Romania – The Case of Ocnele Mari

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-555-3_16How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Environmental displacement; de facto expropriation; internal displacement; Romanian law; climate law; human rights; ECHR

Abstract

This paper examines the environmental displacement of residents from Ocnele Mari, Romania, following decades of unsafe salt mining practices conducted by the state-owned company SALROM. These operations created geological instability, sinkholes, and brine infiltration, forcing families to abandon their homes. While relocated to state-built housing in Râmnicu Vâlcea, residents were housed under comodat (loan for use) contracts, which are temporary, revocable, and non-transferable, leaving them without ownership or compensation. Domestic courts, including the Vâlcea Tribunal in Case no. 35/2025 and Case no. 59/2025, framed the disputes as contractual matters, substituting consent to formalize exchanges rather than recognizing the situation as de facto expropriation. This mischaracterization obscures the structural injustice of displacement and denies residents their rights to adequate housing, legal certainty, and effective remedies. The analysis situates Ocnele Mari within the broader framework of the European Convention on Human Rights, particularly Article 1 of Protocol No. 1, Article 8, and Article 13, as well as the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. It argues for legal reform, recognition of internally displaced persons, and judicial capacity-building to address environmental displacement as a human rights violation.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Maria-Ecaterina Nistor
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/03/13
TI  - Expropriation by Default: Environmental Displacement and Judicial Remedies in Post-Socialist Romania – The Case of Ocnele Mari
BT  - Proceeding of The Future of Life - Legal, Scientific, and Geopolitical Challenges (TFOL2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 249
EP  - 258
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-555-3_16
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-555-3_16
ID  - Nistor2026
ER  -