Helsinki, Finland recently played host to a FIG seminar on CPO. RICS was very well represented at this seminar by Dr Richard Grover and Prof Frances Plimmer. A full report on the event and downloads of both CPO papers are available to RICS members.

Compulsory purchase (expropriation, eminent domain) is an important tool in most of countries for land acquisition for public purposes although in many countries land acquisition can often be arranged trough other means, e.g. by voluntary agreements. In recent years the discussion of the use of compulsory purchase has been rather limited. It is not known what kind of new legislation, practises and methods for valuation of compensations has been adopted and how well they function. Also the old methods and procedures might have been ineffective or unpopular. To find out the present situation and potential for new good practices the seminar will concentrate to following objectives:

• Identify the legal structures and practices in compulsory purchase and compensation in different countries.
• To study if the compensation statutes, valuation methods and manners will lead to full and just compensation and identify possible shortcomings.
• To find possible and effective solutions to solve the problems especially for developing countries. What are the best practices and what principles should be taken into consideration or should be avoided.
• To make suggestions for future research directions.