Legal Characteristics of Special Investment Agreement

Abstract

Problem setting. An investment agreement is the most common form of establishing the rights and obligations of subjects of investment activity, but investment agreements do not have sufficient legal reasoning at the legislative level. The legislator is trying to improve the legal regulation of investment activity, which leads to the emergence of new contractual structures in the field of investment activity. Thus, an amendment to the investment legislation became the consolidation of the contractual structure «special investment agreement» in the Law of Ukraine «On State Support of Investment Projects with Significant Investments», in connection with this, questions arise regarding: the correctness of the name of «special investment agreement». This question arises on the basis of the fact that the legislation does not contain a definition of the concept of «investment agreement», but there is a definition of a special investment agreement; the legal nature of relations arising on the basis of a special investment agreement, since the parties to the contractual obligations are subjects of public and private law; features of conclusion, execution, termination of a special investment agreement and liability of the parties for improper execution of contractual relations; scope of subjective rights and legal obligations of the subjects of contractual relations, since the Law of Ukraine «On State Support of Investment Projects with Significant Investments» does not reflect the rights and obligations of the parties to a special investment agreement. All these issues require a theoretical and legal understanding. Analysis of resent researches and publications. The study of modern scientific publications on the problems of legal regulation of investment activities indicates the absence of scientific publications, the subject of which would be the study of the contractual construction of a special investment agreement. Target of the research is to analyze the legal regulation of the contractual construction of a special investment agreement. Article’s main body. The signs of a special investment agreement, which indicate its specificity, have been established. Among them: the purpose of the agreement is the implementation of an investment project with significant investments; state support for investment projects with significant investments and the specific composition of subjects of contractual relations (applicant, investor with significant investments and subjects of public law the state represented by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the territorial community). The specifics of concluding, amending and terminating a special investment agreement are defined. Conclusions and prospects for development. A special investment agreement is a complex contractual structure that contains elements of private-law and public-law nature of relations arising in connection with the implementation of investment projects with significant investments. Legal regulation of investment projects with significant investments and special investment agreements has the following disadvantages: statutory state support provided to investors with significant investments can be provided only to those investors whose significant investments in investment objects during the period of implementation of the investment project with significant investments exceed the amount equivalent to 20 million euros. Investors who do not meet these financial requirements cannot acquire the status of investor with significant investments and thus, state support; to implement an investment project with significant investments, it is necessary to create a new legal entity an investor with significant investments; The Law of Ukraine “On State Support of Investment Projects with Significant Investments” does not establish the rights nor obligations of the parties to a special investment agreement. The lack of scientific works on the researched topic indicates the need for further study of the specifics of concluding, executing and terminating special investment agreements, their legal nature and the scope of rights and obligations of the parties to a special investment agreement.