The legal regime of subsoil usage in the United States

Abstract

The subject of this research is the legal regulation of exploitation of underground resources in the United States, while the object is the relations of subsoil usage. The author examines the system and structure of the federal executive branches that maintain the development of mineral deposits in the United States, including their functions and authority, highlighting the United States Department of the Interior and its regional branches. Special attention is given to constitutional framework of natural resource management, ownership rights to land and subsoil, its classification in causality with administration of subsoil usage, as well as centralization of the U.S. state natural resource management mechanism. The research is based on the relevant legal sources, works and theses of the Russian and foreign scholars on the subject matter. The author systematizes the information valuable for organization of the national subsoil usage; excludes the possibility of foreign influence upon the lawmaking in Russian through determining unfavorable norms and methods of economic regulation, namely with regards to subsoil management in the constituent entities. The article contains both, new records and previous data, which is constantly being updated. The author’s recommendation of introduction in the Russian Federation of the list of “cooperating countries” may serve as an effective instrument of economic policy.