03. legislation of ukraine

03. Legislation of Ukraine

Внутренний слайд

Plan:Environmental Legislation.Agricultural Legislation of Ukraine.Basics of Business Law.

Environmental Legislation.

Over seventy years of subordination in a command economy led to irrational resource usage and sustained energy-intensive technological processes in Ukraine. By the way Ukraine generated practically one-fourth of the Soviet Union's Gross Domestic Product. It is widely known now that Ukraine's environmental problems include the nuclear contamination resulted from the 1986 Chernobyl accident. One-tenth of Ukraine's land area was affected by the radiation. Pollution from other sources also poses a threat to the environment. Ukraine releases polluted water, heavy metals, organic compounds, and oil-related pollutants. The water supply in some areas of the country contains toxic industrial chemicals up to 10 times the concentration considered to be within safety limits. Air pollution is also a significant environmental problem in the Ukraine.

Environmental Legislation.Legislative framework Environmental policy in Ukraine springs from several provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine. They are: • right to ensure ecological safety in Ukraine,• right of citizens to healthy and safe environment, and• right to free access to information regarding the environment .


Ukraine is also a signatory to a number of international conventions and legal successor to certain conventions signed by the former USSR. All of them make an integral part of the legislation. The basic principles of the national environmental policy are similar to those of EU countries, and of Central and Eastern European countries integrating into Europe. But at this stage likeness comes to the end.

The framework Law On Environmental Protection was adopted in 1991 before the collapse of the Soviet Union. As a follow-up, the Law On Air Protection (1992, new version dated of 2001), the Water Code (1995), and Law On Waste (1998) were subsequently enacted to create regulatory frameworks for each of those institutions. Other laws address air protection, mineral resources, ecological expertise, etc.


The main governmental body of Ukraine in the sphere of environment is Ministry of Environmental Protection responsible for protection and administration of environment. Authorities within the Ministry are divided among various agencies and committees. A number of other Ministries and Committees, including health protection, industrial safety and industrial policy, also have authority for certain aspects of environmental laws. Local authorities may also have some responsibility for administration of environmental laws, depending upon the nature of the project under consideration. Law enforcement bodies, such as the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the General Prosecutor’s Office, which includes a specialized environmental prosecutor’s department, have significant authority to enforce actions against violations of environmental laws.


Companies as legal entities are subjects of regulation in Ukraine. It makes almost impossible to either obtain reliable information on main production processes or to use effective regulatory mechanisms. The focus is on "end-of-pipe" emission/effluent treatment measures rather than on the analysis of the production process as it is and pollution prevention through improvements of production techniques. The law provides for issuance of permits for emission of pollutants into air, wastewater discharge into water bodies, and placement of waste. Such standards identify permissible levels of discharges by companies of particular pollutants and establish a schedule of payments for discharges of pollutants within these established limits. Factors such as soil contamination, noise, odor, vibration, electromagnetic radiation and other important environmental aspects are not widely considered.

Obviously, Ukraine's regulatory framework requires considerable reform to introduce integrated pollution prevention and control and integrated permitting. The reform should include both adjustment of the current environmental legislation and adoption of a new law which would cover key elements of integrated permitting.

Although prevention is a more rational method than attempting to solve problems after they have occurred, presently environmental policy in Ukraine does not incorporate these procedures in full.

Environmental Legislation.•The issue of liability for violations of Ukrainian environmental law and

injury caused to the third parties as a result of violation of environmental legislation must be understood apart from regulatory requirements relating to payments for discharges of pollutants into the environment.

•The current environmental permitting system in Ukraine is based on a medium-specific approach, with separate regulations related to air and water protection and waste management. All sources of air and water pollution are required to have valid permits which stipulate maximum allowable values of specific parameters of emissions to air and discharges to water, as well as monitoring requirements. There are also separate permits specifying limits for waste storage and disposal.

•The permitting system is institutionally complex: operators need a minimum of seven environmental or health-related permits or approvals from different authorities. So, the system is weak from the regulatory point of view.


Requirements for installations are laid down in various parts of primary and secondary legislation, which are rarely interlinked. In extreme cases, compliance with one requirement can be incompatible with other requirements, as it is technically impossible to fulfill both at the same time. Sometimes the same requirements are interpreted differently by different authorities.

There are many authorities issuing permits such as: • Ministry of Environmental Protection • Ministry of Emergency Situations • State Inspection of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov • Sanitary Inspection • Municipality, etc. Besides, there is also a strong inspection function carried out by Government

authorities monitoring the correct application of the Laws. Please, mind that there is virtually no public involvement in the permitting process.

Environmental Legislation. Taking into consideration all above, business transactions in

Ukraine for a foreign investor today must include consideration of environmental issues. Complex laws can impose significant environmental liabilities on purchasers, sellers, and lenders involved in a deal, whether or not they caused the problem, and whether or not they still own the property.

Since this may not be an easy task in Ukraine sometimes all above may need to be the subject of a separate Due Diligence project for Environment (EDD). EDD is an important part of most mergers and acquisitions. The purpose is to evaluate the potential liability costs associated with environmental issues.


To the natural resources of countrywide importance shall belong the following a) territorial and internal sea waters; b) natural resources of the continental shelf and the exclusive (marine) economic

zone; c) atmospheric air; d) underground water; e) surface water located or used on the territory of more than one region; f) forest resources of state significance; g) natural resources within the territories and objects of nature preserves of

countrywide importance; h) wild animals at natural liberty as well as other species of the animal world within

the limits of territorial and internal sea waters, bodies of water located on the territory of more than one region, state hunting grounds, forests of countrywide importance, as well as species of animals and plants entered in the Red Data Book of Ukraine.

Agricultural Legislation of Ukraine.

Agriculture Law deals not only with plants and animals but also with land use, environmental rules, and the use of food products. With the increasing sophistication of farming processes, issues of intellectual property, trade, finance, credit, and general commercial transactions often arise.


•Sources of Agricultural Law - a form of external expression of legislative activity by which agricultural policy of the state finds its consolidation in the relevant regulations. The complex nature of the agrarian law as a field of law leads to presence in the agro-legal sources of regulations, different legal nature and legal specialization. Depending on the nature of the legal sources of agricultural law can be divided into two groups: absolute and dualistic. The first group includes those regulations that govern exclusively agrarian social relations. In particular, the Law of Ukraine "On the priority of social development of rural and agricultural sector in the economy," "About agricultural cooperation", President of Ukraine Decree "On measures to ensure the formation and functioning of the agrarian market" on June 6, 2000, etc..

• The second group consists of sources of agricultural law those regulations, the main price of which is in the regulation of other social relations (land, property, finance, business, labor, etc.).. This group includes the Land and Civil Codes of Ukraine, Laws of Ukraine "On property", "On Entrepreneurship", "On the taxation system" and so on. Share dualistic regulations in the structure of agricultural sources of law has been reduced. Quite often, absolute agricultural and regulations contain specific provisions that are at the legal nature of land and legal, etc. Examples are the Law of Ukraine "On the peasant (farmer) facilities," President of Ukraine Decree "On urgent measures to accelerate agricultural reform" of 3 December 1999 and others.


There is a tendency to include specialized agro-law to the regulations that previously did not consider the specifics of agricultural activity. In particular, the Law of Ukraine "On Renewing Debtor's Solvency or Declaring it Bankrupt", but the rules of a general nature, and contains rules regulating the procedure of bankruptcy of peasant (farmer) facilities (Article 50 of this Law) and other agricultural business organizations.

Typically, only a few rules dualistic agricultural sources of law governing public agrarian relations: the Land Code of Ukraine is a source of agricultural rights only in that part where it defines how to use agricultural land as the main means of agricultural production. In agro-legal literature, such rules are sometimes called rules of "double residence permit." However, the structure of agricultural legislation can be found not only rules but also regulations "double residence permit." Thus, the Law of Ukraine "About the fixed agricultural tax" is both a source of financial and agricultural law, Law of Ukraine "On peculiarities of privatization of property in agriculture," July 10, 1996 - Civil and Agricultural.

Thus, agricultural sources of law is the legal acts containing norms of agrarian law as a branch, as well as provisions contained in the acts of other branches of national and international legislation, in one of them, where they regulate agrarian relations.


Traditional sources of agricultural law by the nature of legal regulation is divided into unified and differentiated. Uniform regulations are aimed at integrating the legal regulation of agrarian relations. They, in turn, can be divided into two groups: general and uniform specially-uniform.

Generally, standardized source of agrarian law is binding not only agricultural but also for other entities (Law of Ukraine "On Enterprises in Ukraine", "On Business Associations", labor, environmental legislation, etc.). Instead, a specially-uniform source of agrarian rights extend their validity only on the relations in the agricultural and social development of rural areas: the Law of Ukraine "About agricultural development for the period 2001-2004" of 18 January 2001, Decree of President of Ukraine "On Main principles of social village "of 20 December 2000 and others.

In differentiated sources include agricultural law those regulations that were developed taking into account differences in legal status of an agricultural enterprise (the Law of Ukraine "About the collective agricultural enterprise" of 14 February 1992, "About agricultural cooperation" of 17 June 1997 R., "On the peasant (farmer) facilities" of 22 June 1993). According to this principle is built and the draft law "On private farm", which we hope will soon be adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. In theory, this type of commercial law regulations called the status or competence laws.

Thus, differentiation in agrarian law is the process of creating sources of agricultural law, characterized by separation of homogeneous totality of social relations within the agricultural rights to their special legal regulation with regard to the particular characteristics of these relations.


•The most common criterion for classifying the source of any branch of law is the legal force of regulations. Typically, the legal force of regulations share the laws and by regulations. However, the hierarchical subordination of regulations depending on the level of legislative authority allows a more detailed structure of the agricultural sources of law: The Constitution of Ukraine, international instruments (declarations, international conventions and agreements, agreements between the countries - members of CIS), codified acts (Land Code, Civil Code, Labor Code, Water Code, etc.), laws of Ukraine, subordinate regulations (Decree of President of Ukraine, Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine), departmental regulations (orders and instructions of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, State Committee of Ukraine on Land Resources, Ministry of Health, etc.), regulations of local authorities and executive authorities (decisions, orders), local farm regulations (statutes, contracts, collective agreements). • According to Art. 8 of the Constitution Ukraine is the highest legal force of the Constitution of Ukraine. Part of the national legislation of Ukraine is the international treaties ratified by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. However, the conclusion of international treaties that contravene the Constitution of Ukraine is possible only after introducing relevant amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine (Article 9 of the Constitution of Ukraine). That is, international legal acts ratified by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, located on the second level of vertical hierarchical system of regulations. Among them are the sources of agrarian law include the International Plant Protection Convention (Rome, December 6, 1951), Agreement on the interstate relations of agriculture (Akmola, Kazakhstan, March 29, 1993), the Convention on settlement of investment disputes between states and foreign investors (January 1, 1965) and others.


The third level agricultural sources of law submitted by the codified regulations that have general unified nature (Land, Civil Code). Lack of agro-industry codified legal act is recognized by one of the reasons that cause current problems of legal regulation of agrarian relations in Ukraine. Contradictory, incomplete, imperfect and dynamism of the agricultural legislation requiring the adoption of a single, consolidated legally and logically coherent, internally consistent legal act that will provide the most complete and generalized system of regulation of agricultural public relations. Representatives of agricultural and Legal Sciences of Ukraine offered to the codification of the agrarian legislation in the form of: Fundamentals of Agricultural legislation (Prof. N. Titov), the Agrarian Code (V. Yanchuk), the Law on agriculture (A. Beykun). Agricultural and codified legal act should be the basis, canvas for law-making industry has to prevent or at least reduce the spontaneous development of the agrarian law. Of all the laws that are valid sources of agricultural law, special attention should be the Law of Ukraine "On stimulation of agricultural development for the period 2001-2004 years" from January 18, 2001 This law, despite its limited effect in time, can be considered one of the main sources of specially-uniform agrarian law, as it will, a number of organizational and economic measures to support agriculture in the same period, contains several important provisions for the first time at the legislative level recognize the specific agricultural production, indicating the objective economic and natural and climatic factors that accompany a negative impact on agriculture. Such norms that justify the need protectional attitude of the state to agricultural producers (including the indispensable and social value of agricultural products), should find its consolidation, not only in the sources of temporary actions, but also in basic agricultural instruments.


Legal implementation of agrarian reform in Ukraine is provided as a rule, regulation regulations. Normative Decrees of the President of Ukraine regulated relations in the sharing of lands and property of the PCB, agricultural market infrastructure, social development of rural areas, protect domestic agricultural producers, the basic directions of development of agro industrial complex of Ukraine.

Quite an impressive place in the sources of agrarian law occupy the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Among these are important decisions that govern the relations of exchange trade in agricultural products, establish methods of monetary evaluation of agricultural land and settlements, determining the amount of property shares a member of the PCB, provide for measures to improve seed crops, support of peasant (farmer) farms and individual farms facilities, logistical support for agricultural producers and others.


If legal and subordinate legal acts extend their validity to the entire territory of Ukraine, the regulatory decisions of regional (municipal) council or the disposal of heads of regional or district administrations are binding within the respective administrative-territorial unit (region). The climatic conditions of certain regions of Ukraine affect the choice of specialization of agricultural production, which in turn causes the decision-differentiated regulations. However, not only economic and natural and climatic factors are the basis for a differentiation of regional regulations. By the sharing of land settlement Decrees of President of Ukraine 1994-1995 biennium processes sharing of land to be in Lviv region on the basis of decisions of the Lviv regional council of deputies. In particular, XIV session of the Lviv regional council deputies from December 8, 1993 approved the Regulations on the sharing of lands and privatization of agriculture in the Lviv region, the sharing of property and privatization of inter-farm enterprises and organizations of the certificate on the right of private ownership of land ( average land share). In fact, land reform and agrarian relations in Lviv was a few years earlier than generally throughout Ukraine.

Agrarian reform has opened up new opportunities for enhancing the role and importance of local internal economic regulations. Local sources provide real agrarian law of farms, agricultural cooperatives, agicultural companies, agricultural companies freedom of establishment.


In the vertical hierarchical system (legal power) sources of agrarian law, provide horizontal parity system of regulations that differ subject to legal regulation: regulations on state regulation of agriculture (Law of Ukraine "On stimulation of agricultural development for the period 2001 - 2004 "), on agricultural land use (Chapter 5 of the Land Code of Ukraine President of Ukraine Decree" On urgent measures to accelerate land reform in agricultural production "of 10 November 1994), the social development of the village (the Law of Ukraine" On the priority of social rural development and agriculture in the economy, "Presidential Decree" On main principles of social village "of 20 December 2000" On additional measures on social protection of the inhabitants of mountainous regions of Ukraine and the efficiency of forest fund lands "of 19 February 2002), on industrial and agricultural economic activities of commercial organizations (the Law of Ukraine "About quality and safety of food products and food raw materials" of 13 September 2001), on property relations in agriculture (Law of Ukraine "On peculiarities of privatization of property Agriculture "of July 10, 1996), about finance and credit (Law of Ukraine" About debt relief from taxes and duties (mandatory payments) of taxpayers in connection with the reform of agricultural enterprises "on March 16, 2000 ) on contractual relations in the APC (Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine "On the concept of exchange market of agricultural products" dated August 5, 1997).

Features of agricultural production is the important objective factor that leads to separation, special regulation of agrarian social relations as a separate branch of the national legislation - agrarian law, which is a form of expression of agrarian rights.

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03. legislation of ukraine

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