Amendments to legal regulations on trade in agricultural land

Bożena Karwat-Woźniak, Alina Sikorska, Bogdan Buks

Abstract: Land is a national good and the State’s duty is to protect it. With respect to the legal status of trade in property in Poland, the most important post-transformation legislation included: the Act of 1991 on management of agricultural property of the State Treasury, the Act of 2003 on shaping the agricultural system and the Act of 2016 on suspension of sale of property from the Agricultural Property Stock of the State Treasury and amendments to certain other acts. Legislation on the subject was drafted so as to give special treatment to a certain group of farms, i.e. the so-called family farms which, according to the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, are the basis of the agricultural system of Poland. Relevant regulations were developed so as to improve the agrarian structure and, at the same time, to prevent excessive concentration of agricultural land and to promote its transfer to the most appropriate users. Each of the legal regulations influenced, to a different degree and through different instruments, trade in agricultural property. When analysing the way agricultural land was traded, three main periods of introducing specific legal solutions may be identified. They differed primarily in the degree of liberalisation of the transfer of rights to agricultural property. However, regardless of amendments to legal regulations, market trade in agricultural land always took place in two separate segments, where different procedures with respect to rules for developing land from the Stock of the State Treasury existed, and in trade between natural persons. This difference, although to a limited extent, remained in legal regulations in force as of May 2016 as well.

Keywords: the Act on shaping the agricultural system; trade in agricultural property

Date published: 2018-02-09