Abstract
"Land doesn't expand and it doesn't contract; we'll find your piece of it."(Judge in a court case over land)"Hey! Since when did my garden shrink?" "It didn't shrink, it stretched."(Two neighbors arguing over the boundary between their gardens)"The day will come when a man will go out into his field and not know where it begins or ends."(Biblical reference by villagers to the imminent end of the world)In memory of loan AluaşIn February 1991 the Romanian Parliament passed a law for the restoration of land to its former owners. Known as Law 18/1991, the Law on Agricultural Land Resources (Legea Fondului Funciar) liquidated collective farms and returned their lands to the households that had given them over at collectivization (1959-1962).' The former owners recover not merely usufruct, or use rights, but full rights of ownership.