Legal transactions with agricultural land are subject to a special regulation of the Agricultural Land Act, which deviates from the regulation of general institutes of civil law. As agricultural land is a special strategic asset, its acquisition is subject to certain conditions and restrictions designed to achieve different objectives.
The Agricultural Land Act thus determines the circle of pre-emption beneficiaries who have priority by law in concluding certain legal transactions with agricultural land and provides for a special procedure for their conclusion. These requirements constitute a restriction on the disposal of property rights, which is permissible only by law and subject to the principle of proportionality. The regulation of the Agricultural Land Act represents a non-discriminatory restriction that pursues the public interest, is suitable for achieving the set goal, does not exceed what is necessary for the realization of the public interest, and at the same time, the goals it pursues cannot be achieved with less restrictive measures.
Despite the recognized compliance with the principle of proportionality, some provisions regarding the definition of the circle of pre-emption beneficiaries remain subject of controversy. Categories and orders are vaguely defined in some places, and establish unequal treatment, the purpose of which is not always clear. The process of concluding legal transactions raises questions about the (un)necessity of individual institutes and the logic of their time sequence.
The core of the master's thesis is the analysis of the regulation of legal transactions with agricultural land in the Agricultural Land Act, where I first separately address the pre-emption right as a substantive legal instrument and subsequently the regulation of the procedure for concluding legal transactions.
|