Don Quijote Kuščević embarks on Linić’s path by merging the cadastre and land registry?

In the thick shadow of tax reform, Minister of Construction Lovro Kuščević is preparing – as he says – ‘the reform of all reforms’. This involves merging land registries and cadastres, which faced fierce criticism even during the Orešković era. Supreme Court Judge Damir Kontrec convincingly opposed the ‘experiment of merging the cadastre and land registry’. This story reminds me of Slavko Linić, his pre-bankruptcy law, and the fierce criticism from judicial ranks, especially from Judge Mislav Kolakušić. Linić wanted to ‘bypass’ the slow and ineffective judiciary that drags bankruptcy proceedings for so long that in the end, there is neither production nor employment left, but only real estate remains for distribution. And that is often the real reason for the destruction of a company. Of course, the masters found loopholes in the law: by artificially creating a debtor majority through connected companies, they would halve their obligations to real creditors. Linić had to leave, according to many precisely because of the pre-bankruptcy settlements that were immediately returned to thorough judicial proceedings. It seems to me that Kuščević could be the Don Quixote-like successor to Linić. He also wants to expedite the process, much to the horror of the judicial community. I am not sure of the purpose of this intention, but Kuščević’s task is inherently more complicated. Besides the judicial lobby, he could also have a coalition partner against him. However, this summer he thanked both the then and current Minister of Justice Ante Šprlja for their cooperation in creating a joint IT database for the land registry and cadastre. The merging of two databases of inaccurate data is celebrated, but merging two institutions could face significant resistance. Namely, if Petrov, by establishing the new Ministry of State Property, loses a large part of the desired influence in energy, he will hardly allow further reduction of powers of ‘his’ Ministry of Justice by transferring land registry competencies to the HDZ’s Ministry of Construction.