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  5. The problem of legal protection of land resources in Ukraine: status, content, concept of solution in the post-war period

Almanac of law. Issue 17 (2026), pages 57–66.

DOI: 10.33663/2524-017X-2026-17-57-66

Kulynych P. F.
The problem of legal protection of land resources in Ukraine: status, content, concept of solution in the post-war period

The article examines the state of Ukrainian legislation on the legal protection of land resources, its doctrinal assessment, analyzes the effectiveness of legal protection of land and identifies ways to improve it. It is noted that one of the main tasks of land law as a branch of the legal system of Ukraine is to ensure the protection of land resources within the territory of our state. At the same time, the effectiveness of legislation on land protection is very low.

It is proved that the main object of legal protection should be considered the land resources of the country, which include land (land territories, land plots) and soil. Accordingly, the main task of legal protection of land is to protect territories and land plots from changes in their legal status (unlawful cancellation of state registration of plots in the cadastre, unauthorized seizure, improper use, waste storage, changes in landscape structure, composition of land, etc.). The content of legal protection of soils is determined by the features of the objects of such protection, which are soil cover and soil mass. The soil cover of land is a soil substance not separated from the earth’s surface (mother rock), formed in the process of millennial soil formation or at least as a result of land reclamation, which is a component of the land plot. Instead, soil mass is a soil cover detached from the earth’s surface, which is compactly stored in certain places according to certain legal rules and can be used for application to the same or another earth’s surface, respectively, to restore or improve its productivity.

Based on the analysis conducted in the article, the author’s definition of legal protection of lands is proposed as a set of legally regulated measures aimed at maintaining land resources in a proper qualitative state possible under the given socio-economic and political-legal conditions of development of society, which is ensured both by the preservation of lands (land plots), and by the preservation, restoration and/or improvement of their soil cover.

The article also proves that the land legislation of Ukraine and the practice of its implementation provide sufficiently reliable protection of owners and users of lands from unlawful encroachments by third parties. However, it does not effectively protect the land from its owners and users of lands themselves, especially those that are used by them as a means of agricultural production.

In this regard, it is proposed that Ukraine needs to develop and implement an effective legal mechanism to ensure the responsibility of agricultural producers for excessive exploitation and failure to take measures to restore the fertility of the lands they use. Within the framework of this mechanism, the fixation of the starting (at the beginning of the agricultural producer’s activity or even at the beginning of the agricultural season) and a certain subsequent (at the end of the agricultural season or upon termination of land use) fertility level should be introduced. And on the basis of their comparison, it will be possible to prove the fact of violation of the legislation on land protection by the agricultural producer, for which strict legal liability should apply. Thanks to such legal innovations, it will be possible to stop the degradation of the country’s land resources and improve their qualitative characteristics in the post-war period.

Keywords: land, land resources, soil, degradation, protection, legislation, doctrine, preservation, restoration, improvement of soil cover, legal responsibility.

 

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    Дата першого надходження рукопису до видання: 04.03.2026
    Дата прийнятого до друку рукопису після рецензування: 09.04.2026
    Дата публікації: 30.04.2026

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