Digital transformation of land legislation of Ukraine as a way of its modernization: status and prospectives
Authors: Kulynych P. 
Published: December 2023

The article examines the main trends in the development of digitization of land legislation of Ukraine as an important direction of modernization of the land relations in Ukraine. Each branch of law needs and perceives the tools of digital technologies differently, which is due, first of all, to the specifics of the branch of the subject of legal regulation. The need for digitalization of land relations and, accordingly, digital transformation of land legislation of Ukraine was determined by the course of land reform. Its task was the mass redistribution of land with the termination of land rights of inefficiently working farms and their transfer to the ownership or use of new market-oriented business entities. Such redistribution caused the need for massive land survey works to form a large number of new land plots. However, land survey organizations carried out the formation of new land plots by developing land management documentation in paper form, which created conditions for mass abuse. In order to overcome the problem of imposing boundaries of land plots, it was decided to transfer control over their formation from humans (land engineers, government officials, etc.) to an independent, dispassionate «arbitrator» – computer software. This purpose was achieved by the introduction into legislation of two «digital» tools: the development of land survey projects both in paper and electronic form, and the maintenance of the state land cadastre as an electronic register of land information. An important component of the digital transformation of the land legislation of Ukraine is ensuring the access of interested users to the digital information of the State Land Cadastre. Such access is carried out using special digital services which are are divided into two groups. The first group of digital services provides general access to digital information. Anyone can use them without identification of the user. The second group of digital services should include software and technical means that provide individual accessto digital information by a person, which is carried out under the condition of his identification. The task of digital land services is to accelerate the resolution of certain problems in the regulation of land relations in professional and personal life based on a higher level of availability of information about land resources. Thus, the digital transformation of the land legislation of Ukraine is based on legal provision for the transfer of a significant part of information about objects and subjects of land relations from paper form to electronic (digital) and providing access to such information online. The digital transformation of the land legislation of Ukraine is manifested in the introduction into this legislation of a system of legal norms that ensure the digitization of land information and the creation of digital services for access to such information by citizens, legal entities, state authorities and local selfgovernment bodies. The digital transformation of the land legislation of Ukraine should be considered as a process of legal development, which includes three main components: 1) transfer of a significant part of information about objects and subjects of land relations from paper form to electronic (digital); 2) creation of a large-scale system of specialized digital services for online access to land information and for implementation by owners, users and authorities of the system of land rights and land powers; 3) regular updating of information about the earth based on remote sensing of the earth, bringing its functioning (ideally) to the level of 24/7 online mode.

Key words: land, land reform, land legislation, state land cadaster, digitalization, land digital services.