Land Ownership in Ukraine: Reform Issues

Abstract

At present, the issue of land market reform for Ukraine is extremely urgent, as the state has for over 20 years been operating a moratorium on the alienation of agricultural land. The prudent transition from a moratorium on the alienation of agricultural land to the modern land market is a priority area for land reform. The purpose of the paper is to conduct a scientific analysis of the current state of land market reform in Ukraine, as well as to compare the chosen reform path with the experience of developing the mechanisms of legal regulation of the land market in several European countries. Methods traditional for legal studies in Ukraine were used to achieve this purpose: historical law; comparatively law; formal law. The study found that a moratorium on the sale of agricultural land leads to the existence of a gray land market, which benefits primarily large corporations, and violates the rights of other business entities. State regulation in the EU countries is expressed in limiting the size of land, control over compliance with the change of purpose of land or the absolute prohibition of its change, restrictions on admission to the purchase of land by foreigners, obtaining special permits for the acquisition of agricultural land, etc. To fulfil the potential of the land market and fully protect the rights of landowners, it is important to consider not only the expansion of opportunities for sale but also the lease of land. The experience of the European Union states that the priority way of development of the land market is its development through stimulation of the farming method of land tenure and land use, which contributes to the performance of the social function by the land.