“Pravova derzhava”. Issue 37 (2026), pages 44–55.

DOI: 10.33663/0869-2491-2026-37-44-55

Kulynych Pavlo
Legal regulation of land relations in the context of the Civil Code of Ukraine: civil law vs land law concept

ISSN online: 2617-9776 print: 0869-2491

The article is devoted to the study of challenges for the development of legal regulation of land relations in the context of the recodification of civil legislation of Ukraine, in the process of which it is proposed to expand the subject of civil law at the expense of a significant part of land relations, which are regulated by the norms of land law. According to the civil law concept, land as an object of legal relations is only a thing, while the land law concept considers land as a complex object of legal relations, which includes the features of land as a natural resource, spatial basis, object of labor, means of production and thing. Therefore, the main dominant of the development of land law is to establish such a protective regime for land that provides the best prerequisites for its use by public and private persons, taking into account the interests of society. Firstly, during the 20th century, there was a process of differentiation of the legal regime of lands by dividing them into categories designed to meet the needs of society in various types of land use (agricultural, industrial, recreational, protected, etc.). Such differentiation is accompanied by an increase in the number of legal norms in land legal mechanisms that specialize in regulating land relations regarding the protection and use of individual categories and even subcategories of lands. Secondly, land legal relations have acquired a dominant role, the subjects of which have the right to demand from other subjects of these relations not only and not so much the taking of certain actions to satisfy their interests, but also actions to change (improve) the qualitative parameters of land plots as objects of land relations (restoration of soil cover of the plot, cessation of degradation processes, increase in land fertility, etc.). Thirdly, the evolution of legal regulation of land relations in the Soviet and modern periods included a transformation of the content of land rights. To replace the civil concept of land ownership, which is based on the triad of the owner's rights to own, use and dispose of a land plot, a land law concept of land ownership was formed, the content of which covers not only the three mentioned rights of the owner, but also includes another element — the legal obligation to protect and rationally use the land. Moreover, the new element has acquired a key importance in the content of land ownership, ensuring the implementation of the social function of land ownership. The owner's freedom to own, use and dispose of it is limited by the legal obligation to protect and rationally use the relevant land plot. Fourth, a special mechanism for protecting land rights has been formed in land law, which is significantly different from their civil law protection. The main emphasis in protecting land rights in land law is on protecting land as objects of land rights. The land law concept of protecting land rights is based on the fact that if a land plot degrades, its qualitative state as a natural resource, spatial basis and means of production deteriorates, then this simultaneously devalues the right to such a land plot. Therefore, the key direction of land protection in land law is to restore the qualitative characteristics of damaged land plots, returning them to the physical state in which they were before the damage. In turn, the main task of civil law in combating land degradation is to compensate owners and users of land plots for losses caused by damage to the plot in monetary form. Thus land law concept of the regulation of land relations allows to implement the provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine that land is the main national wealth, which is under special protection of the state, and the provision that ownership obliges, that is, performs a social function. Recodification of the Civil Code of Ukraine may somewhat reduce the conflict of civil and land legislation in regulating land relations and simplify the market circulation of rights to land and non-land real estate, while at the same time reducing the regulatory potential of land law of Ukraine in terms of acquisition and exercise of rights to land as the main national wealth subject to special protection. Therefore, the recodification of the Civil Code of Ukraine in terms of regulating land relations is at least premature.

Keywords: land, land relations, land law, land ownership, land protection, civil law, recodification, civil law and land law concepts.

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Дата першого надходження рукопису до видання: 25.01.2026
Дата прийнятого до друку рукопису після рецензування: 03.03.2026
Дата публікації: 24.03.2026