When Enforcement Fails : The Legal and Planning Responses to Non-Compliant Development in Two Advanced-Economy Countries

Most research to date has focused on the widespread phenomenon of “informal” construction in developing countries. However, advanced-economy countries also encounter illegal development, though probably at different scales and attributes compared with developing countries. Yet despite the importance of understanding this linchpin of the planning-to-Implementation process, there is very little research on this topic in advanced-economy countries. This paper presents a comparative analysis of non-compliance with planning laws in two OECD countries selected for in-depth analysis – Portugal and Israel. Within the spectrum of non-compliance among OECD countries, these countries probably fall mid-way in the extent of non-compliance compared with the range among advanced-economy countries. Like most OECD countries, the selected countries have functioning planning-law systems. Their experiences can thus offer lessons for many more countries. Recognizing the limitations of enforcement mechanisms as prevention, the paper focuses on how each of these countries responds to illegal development. The method relies on two main sources: Analysis of official documents – laws, policies and court decisions in both countries – and field interviews about practice. In both Portugal and Israel, we held face-to-face open-questionnaire interviews with lawyers and other professional staff at various government levels. The interviews focused on four issues: the effectiveness of the existing enforcement instruments, the urban consequences of illegal development, the law and policy regarding legalization, and the existence of additional deterrent measures.This paper creates a framework for looking at alternative types of government responses to illegal construction. The paper is also, to our best knowledge, the first to present a systematic cross-national comparative analysis and critique of such responses