The genesis of the legal regulation of the sale of land plots and rights to them on a competitive basis

Abstract

The author identifies six main stages and outlines the peculiarities of legal regulation of the sale of land plots and rights to them on a competitive basis at each stage. The first stage was from 18 December 1990 to 28 June 1996; the second stage took place from 28 June 1996 to 1 January 2008, covering the period of adoption of the effective Land Code of Ukraine dated 25 October 2001; the third stage lasted from 28 December 2007 to 5 July 2012; the fourth stage was the stage of the development of competitive acquisition of rights to land plots covering the time period from 5 July 2012 to 21 June 2017; the fifth stage covered the experimental period from 21 June 2017 to 1 October 2019; the sixth stage has been going on since 1 October 2019.
 This periodization enables, firstly, to create a systematic view of the development of legal regulation of the competitive principles of acquiring rights to land plots under the land legislation of Ukraine; and secondly, to assess the legal risks of acquiring rights to land plots having been acquired in a period of time corresponding to the stage of legal regulation.
 The conducted analysis of the genesis of legal regulation of the sale of land plots and rights to them on a competitive basis indicates that in the circumstances of lack of legal framework for land auctions, the process of disposal of land plots and rights to them on a competitive basis have not been stopped. Each of the identified stages of legal regulation, except for the fourth one and the last one, has some contradictions in the source base bearing some legal risks for the contracts of sale of land plots on a competitive basis concluded at these stages.
 Like the Presidential Decrees at the first stage and the Regulation of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine at the fifth stage, the decisions of local councils at the second and third stages were a means of and an attempt to accelerate the necessary changes in the land legislation. On the one hand, these regulatory acts are contrary to the provisions of the Land Code of Ukraine, and on the other hand, they are administrative acts that have been in force for a certain period of time and have not been repealed or deemed to be unconstitutional.
 Therefore, in making the legal evaluation of the agreements concluded on a competitive basis, they should be assessed taking into account the abovementioned factors.