Land registry in Syria after a decade of conflict: A tale of three cities

Abstract

This study offers an original analysis into the nature of the governance of the land registry system in three Syrian cities controlled by armed non‐state actors during the civil war. It adopts aqualitative methodology to compare Douma, al Raqqa and Idlib. The management of the land registry has witnessed both localised transformations and significant resilience. As state institutions collapsed and new non‐state governing actors emerged, the old land registry system has fallen apart, and pre‐existing gaps between official records and realestate ownership have deepened, with significant implications for the possibility of sustainable peace in the country.