instructions issued by the national and regional agencies. Great Britain
has changed its laws "On Town and Country Planning" three times
since 1945.
Generally in the "western" countries the
systems оf private owner-
ship and other civil law rights in land and real property have been
functioning for over a century and land parcels were surveyed many
decades ago. Urban land parcels regularly are bought, sold, leased and
traded as private parties make decisions to invest and reinvest in them.
The fundamental structure of the laws,
governing land relations re-
flects this situation. The laws are not integrated into Land Codes but
remain separate fоr different aspects of land relations.
With respect to property and contractual relationship involving
land, the provisions of the Civil Codes (or the unwritten common law
in the US and Britain) apply to land as to all other immovable and
movable items. Special laws create the "support systems" - land regis-
try, cadastre, mortgage financing system – that allow the property
rights to be protected and transactions to take place efficiently.
With respect to the land as part of the
environment and as a factor
in social relationships the laws of the "western" countries provide var-
ious systems of regulation (including civil and criminal violations).
These are part of the "public (administrative) law" in the civil law
countries and most often the laws address particular problems - soil
contamination, illegal construction, protection of plant and animal re-
sources, fraudulent advertising in the sale of land for housing. These
regulatory laws are imposed on all persons (entities) that are using
land regardless of the
form of ownership or control, or their particular
status.
This structure of separation of "property" rights from regulatory
obligations and restrictions reflects an important fundamental princi-
ple in the "western" law. It is done deliberately in order to insure secu-
rity" of ownership and rights of possession in land and real estate over
time.
Therefore, the "western" countries do
not make use of land codes,
which are intended to integrate of the property aspects of land rela-
tions with environmental and social aspects of land use. In particular,
the concept that land constitutes a "fund" of national resource, subject
to a system of state management is inconsistent with the fundamental
structure and assumptions of the "western" legal systems.
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