Instituto de Estudios Políticos y Derecho Público "Dr. Humberto J. La Roche"
de la Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas de la Universidad del Zulia
Maracaibo, Venezuela
Esta publicación cientíca en formato digital es continuidad de la revista impresa
ISSN-Versión Impresa 0798-1406 / ISSN-Versión on line 2542-3185Depósito legal pp
197402ZU34
ppi 201502ZU4645
Vol.41 N° 79
Octubre
Diciembre
2023
Recibido el 09/04/23 Aceptado el 12/07/23
ISSN 0798- 1406 ~ De pó si to le gal pp 198502ZU132
Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas
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de Es tu dios Po lí ti cos y De re cho Pú bli co Dr. Hum ber to J. La Ro che” (IEPDP) de la Fa-
cul tad de Cien cias Ju rí di cas y Po ti cas de la Uni ver si dad del Zu lia.
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avan ces o re sul ta dos de in ves ti ga ción en las áreas de Cien cia Po lí ti ca y De re cho Pú bli-
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cul tad de Cien cias Ju rí di cas y Po lí ti cas. Ins ti tu to de Es tu dios Po lí ti cos y De re cho Pú bli co
Dr. Hum ber to J. La Ro che. Ma ra cai bo, Ve ne zue la. E- mail: cues tio nes po li ti cas@gmail.
com ~ loi chi ri nos por til lo@gmail.com. Te le fax: 58- 0261- 4127018.
Vol. 41, Nº 79 (2023), 278-289
IEPDP-Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas - LUZ
Acquisition of Agricultural Land by
Domestic and Foreign Legal Entities: Legal
Prospects for Ukraine and other Countries
DOI: https://doi.org/10.46398/cuestpol.4179.18
Antonina Bobkova *
Pavlo Liutikov **
Oleksandr Bondar ***
Yuliia Krasnova ****
Abstract
The aim of the research was to assess the legal framework for
the acquisition of agricultural land by domestic and foreign legal
entities, using the rules and regulations on the agricultural land
market in Ukraine as an example of a system with ill-founded
restrictions in this area. To accomplish this task, the authors
resort to a set of scientic methods, including comparative review,
systematic review and standard techniques of text analysis. The main result
of the research was that it is imperative for Ukraine, taking into account
that European integration is a key and unalterable priority of its foreign
policy, to grant a general permission for foreign natural and legal persons
to acquire agricultural land, as well as to introduce exible approaches
to setting acquisition limits. It is concluded that, the attention of policy
makers should also focus on the need to deploy legal and institutional
mechanisms that can respond to the challenges and risks associated with a
signicant degree of freedom of movement of agricultural land. This could
include establishing in contracts for the alienation of agricultural land the
obligations of buyers in relation to its rational use.
Keywords: agricultural enterprises; land; agricultural policy; land use;
comparative law.
* Doctor of Law, Academician of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine, Chief Research
Ocer of the research laboratory of public security of communities of the Donetsk State University
of Internal Aairs, Mariupol, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0834-7514. Еmail:
bobkova50@gmail.com
** Doctor of Law, Professor of the Department of Public and Private Law of the University of Customs and
Finance, Dnipro, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6173-0128. Еmail: lyutikovp@
gmail.com
*** Doctor of law, First Vice-Rector of Zaporizhzhia National University, Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. ORCID
ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0738-1232. Email: al_bondar@ukr.net
**** Doctor of law, Associate Professor (Department of Agrarian, Land and Environmental Law), National
University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.
org/0000-0001-7898-9603. Еmail: krasnova_yulya@ukr.net
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Adquisición de tierras agrícolas por entidades jurídicas
nacionales y extranjeras: perspectivas jurídicas para
Ucrania y otros países
Resumen
El objetivo de la investigación fue evaluar el marco jurídico para la
adquisición de tierras agrícolas por parte de personas jurídicas nacionales y
extranjeras, utilizando las normas y reglamentos sobre el mercado de tierras
agrícolas en Ucrania, como ejemplo de un sistema con restricciones mal
fundadas en este ámbito. Para llevar a cabo esa tarea, los autores recurren
a un conjunto de métodos cientícos, que incluyen revisión comparativa,
revisión sistemática y técnicas estándar de análisis de textos. El principal
resultado de la investigación fue que es imperativo que Ucrania, teniendo en
cuenta que la integración europea es una prioridad clave e inalterable de su
política exterior, conceda un permiso general para que las personas físicas
y jurídicas extranjeras adquieran tierras agrícolas, así como que introduzca
enfoques exibles para jar los límites de adquisición. Se concluye que,
la atención de los responsables políticos también debería centrarse en la
necesidad de desplegar mecanismos jurídicos e institucionales que puedan
responder a los retos y riesgos asociados a un grado signicativo de libertad
de circulación de tierras agrícolas. Ello podría incluir el establecimiento en
los contratos de enajenación de tierras agrícolas de las obligaciones de los
compradores en relación con su uso racional.
Palabras clave: empresas agrícolas; tierras; política agrícola; uso de la
tierra; derecho comparado.
Introduction
Providing broad segments of the population with a sucient quantity
and assortment of safe and quality food while simultaneously strengthening
economic incentives for agricultural producers to develop their material
and technical base and hire more well-qualied personnel require
proper legislative regulation of the agricultural land market and eective
institutional support for its proper functioning.
The circulation of agricultural land is an area with signicant sensitivity
to a wide range of national political and economic factors, due to which there
are no unied reference models of legal and institutional mechanisms for
regulating this process at the international level. However, policy-makers
responsible for the infrastructure of agricultural land markets could rely
on the experience of many countries with a well-established land market
infrastructure giving due weight to current trends in their development.
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Acquisition of Agricultural Land by Domestic and Foreign Legal Entities: Legal Prospects for
Ukraine and other Countries
This is especially important for the agricultural land market of Ukraine,
which was formed in an extremely unfavorable political and economic
context and which, due to typical fears related to the risk of abuse of
Ukraine’s greatest national wealth, was burdened with numerous unjustied
restrictions. First of all, they are related to the conditions of acquisition of
ownership rights to agricultural land by legal entities, acquisition caps and
the impossibility of acquisition of ownership rights to land by foreigners.
Comparative analysis of legislative framework for the functioning of
the agricultural land market, as well as review of program documents of
authoritative international organizations on this issue indicate that there
are absolute restrictions on the circulation of agricultural land, which are
in most cases unjustied and reduce the potential of agricultural land
markets. Instead, it is recommended to introduce tools to prevent and
counter abuse by owners of agricultural land. This recommendation is
also supported by a signicant number of scientic studies, including the
European Commission’s Joint Research Center study entitled ‘Agricultural
land market regulations in the EU Member States’ and other research
materials of the European Commission as well as spot studies by Deininger,
Yan and other researchers.
Thus, the purpose of this article is to assess the legal framework for the
acquisition of agricultural land by domestic and foreign legal entities using
the rules and regulations on the agricultural land market in Ukraine as an
example of a system with ill-founded restrictions in this area. Accomplishing
that task one should resort to a special set of scientic methods, including
comparative review methods as well as systematic review methods and
standard techniques of text analysis.
Development
The general signicance and certain peculiarities of the legal
framework for the circulation of farmland in Ukraine
First of all, in order to form a sucient research background, we
will briey provide key economic and historical information regarding
Ukrainian agricultural lands.
It is common knowledge that:
Ukraine is the ninth richest in arable land. Of its 32.5 million hectares, some
13 million hectares of farmland contain a rare treasure – the extremely fertile
chernozem (“black soil,” humus-rich grassland soil). The country is Europe’s
largest stock of such soils, and its capacity as a farm goods producer and exporter
is unquestionable. However, a quarter of these riches belongs to the state. Since
Ukraine’s independence, much of the country’s farmland has been divided
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Vol. 41 Nº 79 (2023): 278-289
into small plots and is being cultivated by about 7 million farmers and part-
time farmers who cannot sell their elds. For nearly two decades, a ban on all
commercial turnover of land has been in eect. Ukraine holds nearly 40 percent
of the world’s stock of “black soil,” the most valuable type of farmland. According
to the government, it covers more than half of the country’s surface (Kowal, 2022:
12).
The importance of deploying an eective, transparent and fair market
mechanism for the circulation of agricultural land for Ukraine stems
from the general laws of inuence of the possibility and principles of the
circulation of land as a means of production on the level of economic well-
being of society.
There is overwhelming evidence for the notion that well-functioning land
markets can, in principle, contribute to broad-based rural development in
several ways:
rst, where the ownership distribution of land diers from the optimum
operational structure, land markets can transfer land from less to more productive
producers and thus increase productivity. Second, transferable land rights make it
less costly for rural residents to take jobs in the non-farm economy, something that
is likely to boost the o-farm sector. In other words, the land is a store of wealth and
a nancial asset, and is used to hedge against ination, which makes it attractive
for investors who lack the skills and/or interest to farm. Third, transferability of
land increases investment incentives because those who make such an investment
can enjoy the benets even if they are no longer able to personally use the land.
Finally, the ability to transfer land at low cost will reduce the transaction cost of
accessing credit and can, if there is eective demand for credit, increase credit
supply as land is often used as collateral (Deininger, 2003: 1017).
Conversely, an absence of well-dened or adequately enforced land
property rights in land hampers the functioning of both land sales and
rental markets and leads to inecient outcomes (European Commission’s
Joint Research Centre, 2021: 8). Even if well implemented, such restrictions
on land sales have almost invariably ended up weakening property
rights, increasing the cost of land transfers, and driving transactions into
informality. As the benets from transferring land will become more
relevant with economic development and specialization, the cost of such
restrictions is likely to increase over time. Providing other safety nets may
be a cheaper option to ward o distress sales and destitution than outlawing
land sales (Deininger, 2003: 1020).
Having reached the understanding that in order to realize the exceptional
potential of Ukrainian agricultural lands as fully as possible, it is necessary
to integrate them into the market circulation of goods, the legislators
introduced the rules of circulation of agricultural lands of Ukraine. When
clarifying the specics of the conditions for acquiring land of this category
it seems advisable to refer to the relevant legislative provisions.
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Antonina Bobkova, Pavlo Liutikov, Oleksandr Bondar y Yuliia Krasnova
Acquisition of Agricultural Land by Domestic and Foreign Legal Entities: Legal Prospects for
Ukraine and other Countries
In particular, Article 130 § 1 of the Land Code of Ukraine of 2001 prescribes
that, along with citizens of Ukraine, Ukrainian territorial communities and
the state of Ukraine itself, from January 1, 2024, Ukrainian legal entities,
created and registered under the legislation of Ukraine, participants
(shareholders, members) of which are only citizens of Ukraine and/or the
state of Ukraine and/or Ukrainian territorial communities may acquire
agricultural land. At the same time, foreign individuals and legal entities are
prohibited from acquiring shares or membership in legal entities (except
for the statutory capital of banks) that are owners of agricultural land.
This prohibition shall be lifted on the condition and from the date of
approval of the respective decision in an all-Ukrainian referendum, with
the exception of certain special restrictions related to agricultural land
plots located closer than 50 kilometers from the state border of Ukraine, or
land sales market operations by individuals and legal entities, in respect of
which the special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions) were
imposed and some other special situations (Land Code of Ukraine, 2001:
Article 130).
In addition, it is worth mentioning that the legislative provisions of
Article 130 § 2 of the Land Code of Ukraine of 2001 determine that the total
area of agricultural land owned by a citizen of Ukraine cannot exceed 10,000
hectares. The total area of agricultural land owned by a legal entity (except
banks) may not exceed the total area of agricultural land owned by all its
participants (members, shareholders), but not more than 10,000 hectares.
Violation of these requirements is grounds for invalidating the deed by
which ownership of the land plot is obtained, as well as for conscation of
the land plot (Land Code of Ukraine, 2001: Article 130).
At the same time, according to Article 130 § 7 of the Land Code of Ukraine
of 2001, the sale of state and municipal agricultural land is prohibited (Land
Code of Ukraine, 2001: Article 130). At the same time, the opening of the
land sales market does not imply the cancellation of privatization of state
and municipal land. As the law prescribes:
Citizens of Ukraine shall have the right to free transfer of land plots from state-
owned or municipal lands in the following sizes: a) for farming enterprise, in the
size of land share, determined for members of agricultural enterprises located on
the territory of the village, settlement, city council, where the farm is located. If
there are several agricultural enterprises on the territory of a village, settlement
or city council, the size of the land share shall be determined as the average for
these enterprises. In the absence of agricultural enterprises on the territory of the
relevant council, the size of the land share shall be determined as the average for
the district; b) for individual farming, not more than 2.0 hectares; c) for gardening
– not more than 0.12 hectares; d) for the construction and maintenance of a
residential house, farm buildings and structures (homestead) in villages, not more
than 0.25 hectares; in settlements, not more than 0.15 hectares; in cities, not more
than 0.10 hectares; e) for individual country house construction, not more than
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Vol. 41 Nº 79 (2023): 278-289
0.10 hectares; f) for individual garage construction, not more than 0.01 hectares.
Free transfer of land plots to the ownership of citizens is allowed once for each type
of use (Interfax Ukraine, in: https://www.census.gov/popclock, 2021).
The purchase and sale of a plot of land is carried out in compliance with
the pre-emptive right to purchase it. It is set in favour of tenants of land plots,
as well as, with some exceptions, in favour of a person who has a special
permit to extract minerals of national importance within the boundaries of
the subsoil plot granted to such a person for use. The pre-emptive right can
be transferred to another person with a written notication of the owner of
respective plot of land. Privately owned agricultural land can be alienated
only under contracts of sale, gift, lifetime care, inheritance contract, barter
or via its adding to the statutory capital or through it being charged to repay
the debt (Land Code of Ukraine, 2001: Article 130).
The details of agreements for acquisition of agricultural land are the
subject of negotiations between its participants, while the law prohibits
until 2030 the sale of land for less than its normative monetary value. This
indicator is used to determine the amount of land tax, rent for land plots
of state and municipal property, the amount of duty for barter, inheritance
and donation of land plots.
In 2018, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine extended until 2023 the period
during which indexation of the normative monetary valuation of agricultural
land will not be carried out in order to save money for farmers. Participants
in the land acquisition agreement will have to pay a 5% personal income
tax and 1.5% military levy; taxes and fees will be calculated from the value
of the plot specied in the land acquisition agreement, which cannot be
lower than its normative monetary value, calculated by the authorized body
(Interfax Ukraine, in: https://www.census.gov/popclock, 2021).
Analyzing in the light of the task of this research the rules for the
circulation of agricultural land provided by the law of Ukraine, it seems
fair to state that the peculiarities of these rules are that they set forth the
absolute prohibition of acquiring agricultural land by foreign legal entities
and individuals directly or through participation in Ukrainian legal entities,
until the approval of the contrary decision in the all-Ukrainian referendum.
In addition, it is noteworthy the acquisition cap for a legal entity is 10,000
hectares.
Moreover, by law, in most cases, tenants of land plots have a pre-emptive
right to purchase them or transfer this right once to another person. The
main legal document that can formalize the alienation of agricultural land
plots is the sales contract. All methods of alienation of agricultural land must
meet the general requirements for the relevant civil law agreements, as well
as some special requirements. In particular, until 2030, the law prohibits
selling land for less than its normative monetary value. Regarding the tax
284
Antonina Bobkova, Pavlo Liutikov, Oleksandr Bondar y Yuliia Krasnova
Acquisition of Agricultural Land by Domestic and Foreign Legal Entities: Legal Prospects for
Ukraine and other Countries
burden, it should be taken into account that the parties to agreements
regarding agricultural land plots must pay 5% personal income tax and
1.5% military levy.
Comparing the Ukrainian approach to the organization of the circulation
of agricultural land with relevant foreign experience and recommendations
of the international community regarding the trends and directions of
further development of the agricultural land market, it could be noticed that,
with a few exceptions, developed countries and authoritative supranational
institutions recognize the minimization of restrictions on the participation
of national and foreign capital in the circulation of agricultural lands to be
the optimal solution. This concerns not only the general permission for
foreign legal entities to acquire agricultural land, but also the introduction of
exible and proportional approaches to prevent its excessive concentration,
instead of an arbitrarily determined acquisition cap.
At the same time, attention is focused on the need to deploy legal and
institutional mechanisms that can respond to the challenges and risks
associated with a signicant degree of freedom of movement of agricultural
land. In particular, along with the overriding right to purchase agricultural
lands by their tenants, in foreign countries that can potentially serve as an
example for Ukraine to follow, the overriding right of local farms and other
participants in agricultural product markets, whose support is determined
as a state priority, is established.
In addition, eective regulatory tools for balancing the goals of
government policy in the elds of agriculture and food security and the
development of rural settlements with benets from the use of agricultural
land as an investment asset are, in particular, the requirements to establish
in contracts for the alienation of agricultural land the obligations of buyers
regarding the rational use, reproduction and increase of soil fertility, other
useful properties of land, preservation of ecological functions of soil cover
and environmental protection.
1. European experience and vision of prospects for the
development of the agricultural land market
First of all, getting acquainted with the basic principles of regulation
and administration of the agricultural land market, it is reasonable to
refer to the European Commission Interpretative Communication on the
Acquisition of Farmland and European Union Law, which is a complete
document dedicated to conditions and restrictions related to acquisition of
agricultural land.
At the beginning of that document, the European Commission admits
that:
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Vol. 41 Nº 79 (2023): 278-289
Regulations on land sales generally aim to curb land concentration and
speculation, to keep farmland in good and ecient agricultural use, to preserve
a rural population, to address land fragmentation or to promote viable, medium-
sized farms. To this end, the laws in question subject the acquisition of land to
certain conditions. These include prior administrative approval and, in particular,
requirements such as the acquirer of agricultural land farms the land himself, holds
qualications in farming, and has been residing or doing business in the given
country. Furthermore, the new laws favour certain categories of acquirers (such
as tenants, neighbouring farmers or locals) or prohibit selling to legal persons.
The Commission recognises the validity of the above-mentioned objectives as
such. Having examined the new laws, however, it was concerned that some of
their provisions infringe fundamental EU principles, namely the free movement of
capital. In particular, in the Commission’s view they discriminate, not formally but
in their practical eects, against nationals from other EU countries or impose other
disproportionate restrictions that would negatively aect investment. A restrictive
measure is not proportionate if there is a possible alternative measure that could
pursue the public interest at stake in a manner that is less restrictive to the free
movement of capital or the freedom of establishment (European Commission,
2017).
Sheding light on the approaches applied by European countries to
regulation of organizational and legal aspects of the agricultural land
market with taking due notice of the above-mentioned principles, the study
by European Commission’s Joint Research Centre dedicated to agricultural land
market regulations in the EU Member States.
The foregoing considerations of European Commission’s Joint Research
Centre perfectly align with the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of
the European Union. It suggests that pre-emption rights in favour of
certain categories of buyers (such as tenant farmers) can under certain
circumstances be justied on the grounds of agricultural policy objectives.
In the Ospelt case, the CJEU examined a scheme of prior authorisation of
the acquisition of farmland.
The CJEU examined the proportionality of measures prohibiting the
acquisition by non-farmers with the objective of maintaining a viable
farming community and keeping the land in agricultural use. Therefore, if
the objective is to promote the acquisition of land by farmers, pre-emption
rights in favour of tenant farmers or farmers more generally could be
considered as a proportionate restriction on free movement of capital in
as far as they are less restrictive than a prohibition of acquisition by non-
farmers (Court of Justice of the European Union, 23-9-2003). However,
the European Commission is of the view that:
Subjecting the acquisition to the condition that the acquirer possesses specic
qualications in agriculture constitutes a restriction, which raises doubts as to its
proportionality. First, it does not appear necessary that the acquirer himself possess
appropriate qualications as long as he can give assurances that the land will be
properly farmed. Second and more importantly, it appears that the qualication
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Antonina Bobkova, Pavlo Liutikov, Oleksandr Bondar y Yuliia Krasnova
Acquisition of Agricultural Land by Domestic and Foreign Legal Entities: Legal Prospects for
Ukraine and other Countries
requirement in general goes beyond what is necessary to ensure proper cultivation
of the land or high agricultural productivity and quality (European Commission,
2017: 22).
As regards the legal standing of legal entities as agricultural land sales
market participants, it should be noted that some states, such as Estonia,
Poland and Sweden, generally authorise only individuals, and not legal
entities, to acquire agricultural land of a certain size and subject acquisition
by legal entities to additional conditions, such as the need to obtain a
permit. The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission discovered
in this context that in Estonia legal persons have the right to acquire 10 ha
of agricultural land without restrictions. For the acquisition of a larger area,
additional requirements apply.
The legal person has to be engaged in the production of agricultural
products or forest management for 3 years preceding the year of land
acquisition (European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, 2021: 40). In
Spain at least 50 % of the members of a legal entity need to be professional
farmers. A professional farmer is a natural person, the owner of agricultural
land, who receives at least 50 % of his/her income from agricultural
activities or other complementary activities (e.g., management, processing
of farm products, direct sale, institutional representation), and at least 25 %
of the income is directly linked to agriculture, and who devotes at least half
a unit of agricultural labour to agricultural and complementary activities.
Moreover, in general in Spain, there are no restrictions on the nationality
of a buyer when acquiring land (European Commission’s Joint Research
Centre, 2021: 43).
It seems noteworthy in this context that according to the European
Commission Upper limits on the size of land that can be acquired or held
are restrictions to the free movement of capital as they limit investors’
decisions to acquire agricultural land. Nevertheless, if justied by a
legitimate reason of public interest (such as the aim to achieve a more
balanced ownership structure) and compliant with EU fundamental
rights and general principles of EU law such as non-discrimination and
proportionality, national acquisition caps might be considered compatible
with EU law (European Commission, 2017).
Recognizing the existence in European countries of a wide variety of
approaches to settling the issue of the opportunity for foreigners to acquire
agricultural land, which include absolutely polar views of law-makers
on this acute issue, international expert community represented by the
European Commission’s Joint Research Centre admits that:
The acquisition of agricultural land by foreigners is an issue of particular
concern because of the fear of land concentration and excessive land speculation.
Nevertheless, it is assumed foreign investments can have benecial eects as
they can contribute capital, technology and know-how, thereby improving the
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productivity of the agricultural sector. However, the predominant standpoint is
that acquisition of land by (foreign) investors yields benets only when information
is evenly accessible and when markets are competitive (e.g., when property rights
are clear and enforceable). Asymmetric information can be a source of speculation.
Individuals often have a disadvantage in transfers with corporations, as the latter
often have better access to information and a wider (political) network. The
solution proposed is that rather than prohibiting certain transactions, it might be
more desirable to focus policy attention on eliminating the sources of asymmetric
information or on creating national institutions and rules that give proper
incentives to all market players (domestic and foreign buyers, tenants, landlords
and owner-cultivators) so that multiple benets (access to capital, know-how and
technology; productivity gains; access to land use; and tenure security) can be
realized (European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, 2021: 9).
Conclusions
The above considerations and observations allow us to conclude that
the European Commission and the European scientic community dene
ensuring the proportionality of restrictive measures and preferences in the
agricultural land market as the central direction of further development
of the legal basis for the circulation of agricultural land. The key well-
established proposition is that a restrictive measure is not proportionate if
there is a possible alternative measure that could pursue the public interest
at stake in a manner that is less restrictive to the free movement of capital
or the freedom of establishment.
The absolute ban on the participation of certain categories of national
and foreign individuals and legal persons is considered justied only in
exceptional cases, when there is no legislative and practical solution that
could mitigate the risk of negative consequences for the benecial properties
of the land, as well as for the proper implementation of government policy
in the elds of agriculture and food security.
In particular, instead of unconditionally preventing the acquisition of
agricultural land by foreign legal entities, it is recommended to introduce
a system of regulatory and institutional mechanisms that, by establishing
appropriate requirements and restrictions related to the use and disposal
of land, as well as by monitoring the proper implementation of these
requirements and restrictions, would be able to mitigate the fear of land
concentration and excessive land speculation originating from acquisition
of agricultural land by foreigners.
However, Ukrainian laws and regulations set forth the absolute
prohibition of acquiring agricultural land by foreign legal entities and
individuals directly or through participation in Ukrainian legal entities,
until the approval of the contrary decision in the all-Ukrainian referendum.
288
Antonina Bobkova, Pavlo Liutikov, Oleksandr Bondar y Yuliia Krasnova
Acquisition of Agricultural Land by Domestic and Foreign Legal Entities: Legal Prospects for
Ukraine and other Countries
In addition, it is noteworthy the acquisition cap for a legal entity is 10,000
hectares. Therefore, it is imperative for Ukraine, bearing in mind that
European integration is a key and unchanging foreign policy priority of
Ukraine, to provide a general permission for foreign individuals and legal
entities to acquire agricultural land as well as to introduce exible and
proportional approaches to setting acquisition caps.
Attention of the policy-makers should be focused on the need to deploy
legal and institutional mechanisms that can respond to the challenges
and risks associated with a signicant degree of freedom of movement
of agricultural land. Eective regulatory tools for balancing the goals of
government policy in the elds of agriculture and food security and the
development of rural settlements with benets from the use of agricultural
land as an investment asset are, in particular, the requirements to establish
in contracts for the alienation of agricultural land the obligations of buyers
regarding the rational use, reproduction and increase of soil fertility, other
useful properties of land, preservation of ecological functions of soil cover
and environmental protection.
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Esta revista fue editada en formato digital y publicada
en octubre de 2023, por el Fondo Editorial Serbiluz,
Universidad del Zulia. Maracaibo-Venezuela
Vol.41 Nº 79