Property relations are an interesting sphere, primarily due to their complexity and capacity of the conceptual apparatus. In the framework of property relations, processes can occur that are completely different both in terms of the status of entities and in the aspect of legislative regulation. What are the features of this legal category? What are the levels of property relations? What types of laws govern them?
The specificity of property relations
What is property relations? This term is sufficiently capacious. In the Russian legal environment, such are commonly understood as legal relations, the subject of which is a certain property, usually in the form of a product. Along with this type of communication, there are also non-property relations, the subject of which is personal human rights, which, at the same time, may be somehow related to property.
The type of relationship under consideration in the Russian Federation is governed mainly by civil law. The normative acts regulating the relevant communications classify legal relations on those that reflect the ownership of a property to a specific subject, those that are related to property management, as well as those that reflect the procedure for transferring it from one owner to another. At the same time, some types of legal relations can also be regulated by administrative law.
Property Relations Levels
To address issues in some areas of the national economy, full-fledged state structures have been created. Does this mean that property relations always require such a serious approach to regulation? It all depends on at what level the relevant communications are carried out, as well as on the objective need for participation in solving a particular state issue.
Of course, in Russia there are no special normative legal acts that would single out the levels of property and legal relations per se. However, in the course of the natural processes of political and legal development in the Russian Federation, a certain practice has developed, according to which these very levels - or at least sufficiently separate spheres of property relations - actually formed. As a result, process management in some of them does require the participation of individual political institutions. In turn, many property civil relations are sufficiently effectively regulated by those legal acts that are established, for example, at the level of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
For example, we take such a question - state registration of real estate transactions and cadastral registration. Is this a property relationship? Of course, yes. However, they are carried out at a level when the participation of departments performing political and administrative tasks assigned to them is necessary. Relevant government agencies - primarily the Federal Service for Cadastre, record real estate transactions and enter information about them in the official register.
In turn, the property relations of spouses, for example, can be fully regulated without the participation of state structures. Just because the relevant rules are already laid down in legal acts - the Civil Code, the Family Code, relevant federal laws. Government involvement is required mainly in the event of a dispute.But then we are talking, as a rule, with an appeal to the judiciary, and not to the executive, as in the regulation of property relations at the level of state property management or in the performance of the functions of the Federal Register.
Thus, two main levels of property relations have been formed in Russia. Firstly, these are communications involving state bodies. They are regulated by administrative law, which forms the corresponding branch of law. Secondly, these are relations that are carried out in the private sphere. They are regulated, in turn, by civil law, as well as by those adjacent to it, for example, family law.
We see that property relations are a very complex, complex sphere, and most importantly - very capacious in terms of the specifics of the processes occurring within it. Therefore, it will be advisable to consider its specifics in different areas. Let's start with the one where government agencies perform key functions. One of the key in the political system of the Russian Federation is the Department of Property and Land Relations under the Ministry of Economy. We study the specifics of his work.
State Property Management
The main task of the Department is the development of measures related to legal regulation in the field of property, land relations, as well as territorial zoning and nature management. The structure under consideration interacts with many other authorities, territorial units. For example, if in a certain region there is a Ministry of Land and Property Relations - we will consider the specifics of the functioning of such bodies a little later - then it will conduct its policy in the context of the main strategic directions being formed at the federal level.
Among the key powers of the Department are the development of bills relevant to its activities, the publication of departmental legal acts related, in particular, with cadastral registration and work on privatization issues. With regard to the regulation of land relations, the Department is responsible for developing the appropriate type of legislation regarding the delineation of state ownership of land, the transfer of territories from one category to another, the provision of land for construction, etc.
The department also regulates legal relations in the field of environmental management. In practice, this is expressed in the preparation of various types of conclusions on field development programs, as well as those relating to the environmental development of the country.
In general, functions similar to those characteristic of the Department’s activities at the federal level are performed by territorial and municipal authorities. Thus, any Department of property relations, or, in other regions, the Ministry, has powers, in general, adapting the key powers of the federal structure considered by us at the local level. Similarly, such a body as the Committee on Property Relations, which operates in the structure of many municipal institutions of the political system, decides on the management of city or district property.
Power structures those responsible for managing state and municipal property thus resolve a wide range of issues. This may be connected, of course, with land administration, with construction, with the environment, with social policy - if it is connected with property relations at the appropriate level.
We indicated above that one of the leading government agencies involved in the management of processes at the level of administrative communications is the Department of Property and Land Relations. What determines the specifics of its name? Why are land and property relations often considered as related?
The relationship of property and land relations
In literature and the press, the phrase “land-property relations” is often found. How correct is its use? Fact - is there specifically “property”, but is there, in fact, “land” relations? Experts believe that the whole thing is the prevailing practice of using these terms in the Russian legal environment.
Strictly speaking, “land relations” in most contexts will be a kind of “property”, since land in the state, in one way or another, belongs to someone, if we talk about the Russian principles of organization of territorial management. At the same time, there are possible options in which legal relations in the land sphere will include aspects that are not directly related to property law - for example, if we are talking about environmental requirements in terms of land development, or, as an option, the economic feasibility of such Some work on the land.
Thus, the term “land relations” can be understood in several meanings. Firstly, as a variety of property relations. And in this case, the use of the phrase "land-property relations" is really fair, this is correct. Secondly, they can denote communications in areas that are somehow related to land - environmental, economic, or, for example, tourism - but not directly related to the property aspect.
Property and land management: departmental aspect
It should be noted that property relations in some areas of the national economy, for example, in the field of state and municipal property management, are very often associated with land use issues. Any building owned by someone is built on land, which, in turn, also has an owner. Therefore, the state bodies responsible for managing state property in their name can use the term “land relations” in some formulations. Since, in practice, the relevant agency will deal with such in one way or another.
For example, there is the Ministry of Land and Property Relations of the Republic of Bashkortostan. This structure, respectively, deals with issues of state property management, significantly affecting the nuances regarding land use in this region. Similarly, the structure of the Ministry of Economy of the Russian Federation has, as we noted above, the Department of Property and Land Relations. He is responsible for the same issues, but only at the federal level. In turn, the Ministry of Property Relations operates in the Moscow Region. But, despite the fact that in its name there is no term associating the activities of the department with land issues - the corresponding structure also deals with such.
In the Vologda Oblast there is a Department of Property Relations. Among the issues under his jurisdiction are those related to land use. In turn, at the level of municipal political systems, the relevant body may sound like the Committee on Property Relations. It resolves, in principle, the same groups of issues, however, at the local government level. Many cities and regions also have a Property Relations Office. As a rule, it is included in the structure of higher departments - for example, ministries.
Having examined how the system is structured, within the framework of which state and municipal bodies participate in resolving property issues, we will examine the legal relationships that reflect the communication processes of entities that are not related to political institutions.
Civil regulation of property relations
Consider, therefore, another level within which law and property relations interact.Above, we studied the aspect that reflects the interconnection of the corresponding type of communications and the functions of state bodies, regulated at the level of administrative legislation. Here we look at how property relations are governed by civil law. Experts identify a number of common features that characterize the legal relationship in question. Consider them.
First of all, it can be noted that the subjects of the corresponding type of communication are legally independent and at the same time, are equal.
Each of them can dispose of their property and bear, at the same time, responsibility for the actions taken personally.
Property relations in this case are formed on the basis of the subjective priorities of each of the parties involved in them. At the same time, as we noted above, state structures can still act as a mediator in the interaction of subjects of legal relations of the corresponding type - as a rule, this is the judiciary.
The next aspect - the regulation of property relations by law implies the imperativeness of certain legal norms that are simultaneously applicable to each of the entities. None of them can impose their will on another administratively - everyone is equal before the laws. Although in some cases, similar elements in the field of civil relations may still be present. This is about corporate subordination - a little later we will study the relevant aspect in more detail.
Also, some experts believe that property civil relations in the general case involve the commercial nature of communications. While in the administrative sphere, any profit-making is, as a rule, a secondary criterion of activity. Although, of course, civil law provides for legal relations within which property can be transferred free of charge.
These criteria, therefore, form signs of the isolation of civil property relations from those communications that occur in the tax, budget, and administrative spheres. It can also be noted that the land use issues that are decided, relatively speaking, by the Ministry of Property Relations, in the general case do not correspond with civil law.
There are branches of law, the belonging of which to the civil can be fixed by a number of criteria, but, at the same time, be characterized by signs of isolation. For example, property relations of spouses are governed mainly by family law. In Russia, in particular, there is a separate Code of the corresponding type.
As for the regulation of property relations at the level of civil law and the relevant types of legislation - family law, for example - in the Russian legal model its basic principles are formed at the federal level. That is, the Civil and Family Codes are laws whose provisions are valid throughout the Russian Federation. Regional and municipal legal acts should not contradict them.
Russian experts classify civil law property relations into three main types - property, liability, and corporate. Consider the specifics of each of them in more detail.
Property Relations
The main criterion for property relations is the legal ownership of the property. That is, in the framework of the relevant processes, a person can dispose of his property based on the fact that he legally owns it. Variants provided by law are also possible when other entities will also have access to the use of one or another property. For example, if we are talking about an apartment, then, despite the fact that it belongs to a particular citizen, all those who are registered there will have the right to live in it, although they are not owners.
Legal relationship
In civil society, processes that shape the exchange of goods can occur. This is also a property relationship. In this type of process, ownership can transfer from one owner to another. This, as a rule, is accompanied by the alienation and, accordingly, the acquisition by subjects of certain rights. They can be made out, from the point of view of the law, in the form of those or other obligations - on transfer and, accordingly, acceptance of the rights.
The type of legal relationship under consideration can be observed in a variety of areas. They are typical for business when the seller transfers ownership of the goods to the buyer in accordance with contractual or other obligations. However, similar legal relations can also arise with the participation of citizens - the laws of the Russian Federation provide for a variety of types of sales transactions involving individuals.
Corporate Relations
Some property civil relations can take a special form - corporate, making them isolated from those that are characteristic of communications involving individuals. This is most often associated with business management processes. The fact is that an enterprise that is a party to an agreement is a rather abstract subject of legal relations.
One way or another, all decisions are made by the people who work there. Yes, in contracts signed in business, corporations are represented in someone else - as a rule, the general director puts the appropriate signatures. However, in many cases he is not the owner and is not liable for those obligations that arise in the company in accordance with the contract.
At the same time, inside the corporation itself, it can sign certain documents that oblige it to be somehow responsible for actions related to the signing of agreements with other legal entities. However, their content, as a rule, remains a trade secret and does not appear in any way in the contracts of the company with counterparties. It turns out that the agreement between organizations is the subject of the obligation law, and the agreements within the companies are actually corporate legal relations.
It should be noted that many experts single out the considered sphere of civil communications into an independent branch of law. Indeed, in many respects corporate relations are not similar to typically material and obligatory, and in some cases they, in fact, do not meet the criteria for classifying legal relations as civil, which we have defined above. How can this be expressed?
Are corporate relations a separate area?
Recall that we said that all subjects of civil law relations are equal, one party to the contract cannot be subordinated to the other. In turn, within corporations, this same subordination, as a rule, is expressed significantly. The head of the department manages hired employees, and he, in turn, reports to the director. Of course, some of the points governing such communications are recorded in Labor Law, which is considered by most lawyers separately from civil law.
At the same time, the participation of certain persons in the management of the organization may not be at all connected with the norms of the Labor Code. For example, the owners of a business company may not have any positions in the company that they own, and at the same time, directly influence the relations that are formed within it. Thus, corporate law is an interesting field, which, on the one hand, has signs of similarity to civil law, and is attributed by many lawyers to it, on the other hand, characterized by pronounced isolation according to a number of criteria that we have identified.
