ON NOVEMBER 19, A ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION WAS HELD: “LAND MARKET: COURT PRACTICE AND ISSUES OF STATE REGISTRATION” WAS ORGANIZED BY THE LVIV REGIONAL COUNCIL FOR JUSTICE REFORM (RJC), THE EU PROJECT “PRAVO-JUSTICE” TOGETHER WITH THE WESTERN ECONOMIC COURT OF APPEAL. The discussion was attended by experts from the EU Pravo-Justice Project, judges of the Supreme Court, judges of the Western Economic Court of Appeal, the Economic Court of Lviv Region, representatives of the Notary Chamber of Ukraine, the Western Interregional Department of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, and members of the Lviv Regional Chamber of Legal Aid and Advocacy. “The Lviv Regional Council for Justice Reform was established by the EU Pravo-Justice Project three years ago to bring information about the region’s legal problems to the central authorities. And today we managed to bring together various experts to discuss what the future holds for the open land market and to identify problems that we can solve today.”The moderator of the event , Marta Mochulska, noted . During the first session, the participants discussed the court practice of land disputes. The session was moderated by Zhelik Maksym, Deputy Chairman of the Western Commercial Court of Appeal.Yuriy Chumak, Judge of the Commercial Court of Cassation within the Supreme Court, presented the legal positions of the Supreme Court on the conclusion of land lease agreements, transfer of lease rights, amendments to lease agreements and their termination. “We, as a court, have to guide the court practice and determine a method of protection that will lead to effective restoration of the right. That is why such roundtables with practitioners are very useful, “ emphasized Yuriy Chumak. Vitaliy Urkevych, judge of the Commercial Court of Cassation of the Supreme Court, spoke about the position of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court on the judicial jurisdiction of land disputes, which is determined by the following criteria:

  • subjective composition of legal relations;
  • the subject of the dispute;
  • the nature of the material legal relationship in dispute;
  • the law specifies the type of proceedings in which a certain category of cases is considered.

“One dispute should be resolved by the courts only once. To avoid situations where the plaintiff first appeals to the administrative court to cancel the order of the StateGeoCadastre, and then to the commercial and civil courts,“ Vitaliy Urkevych emphasized. Svitlana Boyko, judge of the Western Commercial Court of Appeal, spoke about the problematic issues arising in the application of land legislation using real-life cases as examples. The second session of the roundtablewas devoted to the peculiarities and prospects of state registration of land rights. The session was moderated by Roksolana Kostur, attorney at law, partner at Matviyiv & Partners Law Firm, member of the Lviv Regional Chamber of Legal Industry. Taras Gren, Head of the Western Interregional Department of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, outlined the problematic issues of acquisition and state registration of rights to agricultural land plots, in particular:

  • errors in the State Geocadastre, such as the absence of land plots, incorrect area and purpose;
  • absence of registrations of land ownership in the State Register of Property Rights before December 31, 2012;
  • facts of double registration of lease rights due to improper searches by state registrars or lack of data in the registers;
  • problems of interaction between registries administered by different entities, etc.

Yuriy Pylypenko, Head of the Lviv Region Branch of the Notary Chamber of Ukraine, spoke about the practical aspects of state registration of rights to land plots by the notary community: “Today, any registration of rights to a land plot is carried out through direct interaction between the State Land Cadastre and the State Register of Property Rights. If the State Land Cadastre does not have any information about the registered land plot, the state registrar cannot even accept an application for state registration of rights. If the information is incomplete or inaccurate, the state registrar must suspend consideration of the application and send a request to the state cadastral registrar to update the information, enter true information or clarify certain data.” In turn, Roman Savchuk, national expert of the EU Law-Justice Project, focused on the tasks that will ensure control over the concentration of agricultural land:

  • deeper integration of all state registers to simplify and automate inspections;
  • providing access to state electronic registers not only to state registrars and notaries, but also to courts.

“One of the promising areas of the Project’s further work is to initiate and implement measures to improve and integrate the work of state electronic registers on a single platform,” said Roman Savchuk. Given the large number of unresolved issues related to the land market, the EU Pravo-Justice Project plans to continue the discussion in other regions of Ukraine. For reference:Regional Justice Reform Councils (RJCs) were established with the support of the EU Pravo-Justice Project and operate in Chernivtsi, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Lviv, Odesa regions and Donbas. To date, members of the Councils have been actively involved in the preparation of a draft law on mediation, amendments to the Bankruptcy Code, proposals to improve legislation on enforcement proceedings, the introduction of an electronic court, and discussions on the concept of transitional justice. The RECs act as permanent working groups that promote the implementation of reforms in accordance with the bottom-up principle: by bringing region-specific challenges and their potential solutions to the level of central authorities.

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