A Few Notes about the current compensation regime for “expropriation of the plan” – the article 171.º of Decrete-Law n.º 80/2015

Abstract

This paper pretends to be an analysis about the article 171.º of the Decret-Law n.º 80/2015, whose establishs the regime of compensation in cases of so called “expropriation of the plan”. 

In some cases, in order to accomplish the public interest associated to territorial planning, the Administration has to affect, or even extinguish, consolidated rights (such as a license, for example). But, in such cases, the ones affected must be compensated for the sacrifice of their rights or legal expectations — has the Constitution demands. 

That is precisaly what the article 171.º is about. In fact, this article predicts the situations that justifies the compensation in case of extinction of rights, based on reasons of territorial planning. And so, we pretend to make a critical analisys about those situations, examinating the legal text in order to discover the requeriments of witch one, and discussing eventual problems about it. 

Also, we will try not to forget the legal evolution on this subjet, comparing the current regime with the previous. 

In the end, a conclusion is presented, based on the global analisys of the legal regime, including to defend it as special