Igaüheõigus ja ligipääs loodusele: maaomanike hoiakud ja arvamused
Date
2008
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Description
This thesis gives a brief overview of the history of everyman's right, its regulation in today's
Estonia and analyses how Estonian newspapers and magazines have portraied everyman's
right to the public. The majority of this paper, though, focuses on the analysis of interviews
with 6 landowners looking for the reasons why landowners have hindered the right of public
access (granted by the law) to their privately-owned land.
Everyman's right (in some occasions might also be called freedom to roam) is originally a
Nordic custom of a person's right to walk over somebody else's land. In Estonia, everyman's
right is a term used in recreation, rather than a traditional custom, due to the fact that the
territory has been occupied by many different countries, all with their own laws and customs,
which is why Estonian customs are dated back only a couple of decades.
Today, everyman's right can be seen in the regulation of shore paths. In fact, that is the only
place a landowner cannot close for the public use: everywhere else, signs and fences forbid
the use of privately owned land by the public. (In the media, a term "everyman's right" is used
to describe not only the public right of access, but also regulation concerning outdoor
recreation in general, which is how author of this thesis is analysing the topic.)
There's no act outlining the basis of the public right of access, nor there is a single document
with rules concerning outdoor recreation gathered together: legislation is scattered between
different acts and is both detailed, as it describes specific activities (for example camping in
the forest), and scarce, as it does not cover all of the necessary practical aspects. Thus,
conflicts between landowners and people spending their leisure time in the outdoors are
common.
The author interviewed 6 landowners, 5 of whom had hindered the right of public access to
their privately-owned land and one tour organiser whose activities were partially causing the
problem.
It turned out that although the right of public access is meant to enable spending leisure time
in the outdoors by people who don't damage the nature nor the assets of the landowner, it also
grants the access to those that are ill-intentioned.
The obstacles set by the interviewed landowners were meant to protect their privacy and
assets from damage and although they aknowledged problems it causes to good-mannered
hikers, they did not see alternative ways of guarding their own rights. On some occasions, the
obstacles were partially caused by the local government due to insufficient communication in
the process of making a detailed plan of the land-use.
Keywords
bakalaureusetööd, loodus, omand, maaomand, eramaa, riigimaa, igaüheõigus