1.3 The importance of the rules on land registration
The rules on ship registration have much in common with the land registration rules, and over different periods, the one has had more modern rules than the other. In the development of rules on electronic registration, the land rules have been ahead, and the amendments of 2023 are to a great extent in conformity with the land rules. In the travaux préparatoires to the ship register amendments of 2023, there are a number of references to the land register rules.(1) See Prop. 129 L (2022–2023) p. 10: “In the present proposal the Ministry has, therefore, to the extent possible and relevant for ship registration, proposed solutions that are close to those in the Act on Registration of Deeds.” This connection therefore calls for a short survey of the land registration rules:
There are two registers for land property. One is primarily for public law reasons: the Land Register (Norwegian: “matrikkelen”) with its legal basis in the Land Registration Act of 17th June 2005 No. 101. In this register every property, as defined in the Act, has a “page” in the electronic register, where its physical characteristics are described, in particular the geographical boundaries. The other register is the Register of Deeds (Norwegian: tinglysingsregisteret or grunnboken) serving private law interests, see the Act on Registration of Deeds of 7th June 1935 No. 2. The Register of Deeds has gradually become electronic, with an electronic register where each property has its own “page”, and with the possibility of having rights in the property registered electronically. By the end of 2023, it is expected that 75 percent of the registrations will be electronic. The important last step for this change to electronic registration was taken by an Act of 2014 (20th June 2014 No. 45), in force as from 18th April 2017.