A Study of Land-grabbing through Illegal Possession and Change in Land Usage

Land-grabbing thorough illegal change in usage and illegal possession of lands has been one of the most important problems of our society in the last few decades and has constituted the most important form of economic corruption. Although the supreme leader of Iran and other important authorities have called for measures to be taken against it and new rules and regulations have been introduced to prevent illegal change in usage and illegal possession of lands, this problem has not been resolved yet. Because of their lack of formal structure and legal sanction, their inability to prevent crimes and lack of a clear definition and a criminal title such as “land-grabbing”, the current rules and regulations have failed to be effectual, so that the term “land-grabbing” has been mostly used in administrative and social practice. It seems that because of the serious political, economic, agricultural and environmental threats these criminal practices should be codified in a serious and scientific way under the title “land-grabbing”. In the present study, land-grabbing has been studied in terms of illegal change in usage and illegal possession of lands.