On June 24, 2010 CLC organized a session of its Legal Club dedicated to legal regulation of lease. Ms. Inna Spasybo-Fateyeva, PhD, Professor at the Yaroslav Mudriy National Law Academy was a keynote speaker. The main issue discussed was whether lease rights could be alienated. Participation of Ms. Liudmila Spitsina, Deputy Head of Zaporizhzhya Regional Main Department for Land Resources made the discussion particularly interesting, since she brought up a number of complicated related questions.

Legislative ambiguity in the land sphere results in corruptive practices, ineffective auctions, self-acquisition of land parcels or improver use of land. For example, 12,000 hectares of land in Zaporizhzhya region cannot be leased due to the lack of clear and consistent legal framework. In theory, auctions could be used as a civilized solution of this problem. However in practice, individual problems sometimes require finding special solutions, such as “legal surrogates”. The theory seems to be incapable to overcome the shortcomings of imperfect legislation; the way out can be found only if political will is in place.