Legal Regulation of Organic Agriculture in the People's Republic of China
Abstract
This article provides a comparative legal analysis of claims for the establishment of land plot boundaries filed by land users in the Russian Federation and the United States. It identifies a number of problems arising in the consideration of this category of cases by courts of various instances. These problems include the complexity of the subject of proof in boundary disputes, an excessive reliance by judges on the conclusions of cadastral engineers, the underdeveloped conceptual framework for forensic land surveying expertise, its methodologies, as well as requirements for the preparation of expert opinions in land disputes, and the lack of uniform judicial practice in their consideration.
The aim of the research is to identify ways to improve Russian legislation in this area, particularly through the incorporation of legal constructs successfully applied in the United States. The principal research methods employed are comparative legal, formal legal, and systemic methods. General and specific scientific methods (analysis and synthesis) are also applied. An analysis of judicial practice has helped to identify the main features and conflicts in boundary disputes in the two countries. Concepts such as the "actual location of a plot's boundaries" and the "actual location of adjacent plots' boundaries" are examined, which can only be confirmed through the opinion of a qualified forensic expert.
A comparative analysis of the resolution of such disputes in individual US states has allowed for an examination of the specific features of their settlement mechanisms from the perspective of their potential incorporation into domestic legislation. For instance, in the United States, the roles of land surveyors are clearly defined at the legislative level, both in the context of alternative dispute resolution and at the litigation stage. In the Russian Federation, a current problem is the delineation of the forms of participation of a cadastral engineer as an expert (the key feature of engaging a cadastral engineer as an expert is that they conduct a land surveying expertise), a witness, or a specialist, which may lead to the violation of the rights of trial participants.
The research goal has been achieved by identifying mechanisms of legal regulation in the field of land management. The authors have drawn an important conclusion about the necessity of establishing a new type of forensic examination – forensic cadastral expertise – due to the specific nature of land legal relations. The article notes that Russian legislation currently lacks a definition for forensic land surveying expertise, despite the high demand for such examinations. Presently, the procedure for conducting forensic examinations is regulated by legal norms under which real estate objects (the objects of forensic land surveying expertise) cannot be classified as objects of land management. A number of measures are proposed to improve legal regulation in this area, including amendments to legislation on cadastral activities, the adoption of legal acts containing requirements for the qualification of cadastral engineers as experts, empowering the public-law company "Roskadastr" with the authority to promptly resolve land disputes out of court, and other mechanisms aimed at creating legal constructs that facilitate the successful resolution of land boundary disputes. The article also examines the foreign legal doctrine of resolving disputes over the boundaries of adjacent land plots through the tacit consent of their owners, which, in the authors' opinion, could be incorporated into Russian legislation and considered as a basis for establishing the boundaries of land plots on the ground.
