A cadaster is an official public register of the real properties of one country. It usually provides details of ownership and boundaries of real properties within the statutory system.

Physical impediments to passage, directing or restricting flows of goods, capital and people. Often located at borders.

Any critical point in flows of goods, capital and people that can potentially be used to direct or restrict these flows, for example checkpoints.

As per Weizman, 2019: An evolving information and media environment enables authoritarian states to manipulate and distort facts about their crimes, but it also offers new techniques with which civil society groups can invert the forensic gaze and monitor them.

Legislative Decree No. 66 of 2012 was enacted by Assad to ‘redevelop areas of unauthorised housing and informal settlements’ in two zones in Damascus. The law gave the authorities legal ground to demolish informal areas and turn them into development projects.

De-construction. Literal meaning being ‘to un-build’. Construction means to ‘pile up’, ‘place on top of each other’. Something is destroyed when it is torn apart so badly it can no longer be used.

A gradual unfolding; bringing out the possibilities inherit in something.
1. The process of growing or changing and becoming more advanced.
2. The process of making a latent image captured on film become a visible photograph.
3. The building of houses, stores, or offices, often done by a company to make profit.

The act of putting out of possession. The fact of having property, especially buildings or land, taken away from you, or the act of taking property away from a person or group. The loss of property often generates further loss in terms of connections, relations, and sense of belonging.

The deliberate destruction of homes or living environments, often with the intention of causing displacement and suffering.

The physical components of a checkpoint.

A checkpoint that remains in one place for an extended period, usually constructed from permanent elements.

A temporary checkpoint subject to rapid changes in location and construction.

A designated area where goods can be imported, stored and processed without being subject to normal customs duties, taxes or regulations, often encouraging trade and investment. Free zones can be understood as spaces carved out from the state’s ordinary legal order, but reveals how logistical freedom can be used to reinforce state control.

The United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement describe internally displaced persons (IDPs) as: “persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized state border.”

Law No. 10 of 2018, expanded the scope of Decree 66 of 2012 to the entire country, allowing the Syrian government to create redevelopment zones anywhere in Syria for reconstruction after the war.

A point in a network.

The act of making something unclear, obscure or difficult to understand, often deliberately.

Prescription is the process of acquiring land rights, and in particular obtaining land ownership, as a result of continuous land use over a period of time.

The act of taking unfair advantage of a situation to make a large or excessive profit and especially in times of crisis or when goods/advantages are limited.

The act or process of changing the classification of something. e.g., land or zoning being assigned to a different use or category.

Literal meaning is a ‘seat’: an army ‘sits down’ before a place until it surrenders. A military operation in which forces surround a town or building, cutting off its essential supplies, with the aim of compelling those inside to surrender. Often a low-intensity yet constant conflict.

A state of economic isolation of an area, often caused by conflict or sanctions, where constraints on the free flows of trade worsen internal conflict, freedom and civil rights.

Comes from specere meaning ‘to look’. A visual display made to entertain the public. Used by the French theorist Guy Debord to argue that in modern, capitalistic societies, everything has been reduced to mere representations. Images have been detached from lived life, and the relationship between people is mediated through these images.

The armed conflict that began with the Syrian revolution in March 2011 until the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024.

An analysis of the relations between constituent elements. From topos meaning ‘place’.

A phase where a society transitions from a state of conflict to one of peace. Transitional justice refers to the processes implemented in order to respond to legacies of widespread human rights violations. It centres the victims and seeks accountability, acknowledgment, restitution, and reparation. See ICTJ’s website.

A term within law based on the principle that ‘no one should be enriched by the loss or injury of another’. Recently expanded by Joshua Castellino in Calibrating Colonial Crime to cover systemics of injustice. He argues that unjust enrichment should be considered a crime from an international legal perspective, and that focus should be directed towards the private and corporate actors who gained unjustly from colonial exploitation.

The process of revitalising urban areas experiencing decline (physical, economic or social), including re-use or redevelopment of land/assets and the redistribution of opportunities.

When a state’s economy prioritises warfare and its resources, workforce, and manufacturing capabilities is directed towards preparing for and sustaining armed conflict.