Protection of agricultural property in reference to the concept of agricultural property by professor Andrzej Stelmachowski

The concept of agricultural property as proposed by A.Stelmachowski relies on the association of the original construction of property law with its specific object, i.e. the farmstead. According to this concept, agricultural property (specified in respect of the matter of ownership) is a complex of laws and obligations describing the legal standing of the subject – farm owner. The concept of agricultural property is an important element of the doctrinal accomplishment underlying the distinguishing of agricultural law as a new branch of legislation; it may also form – on the didactic level – an axis to organise the presentation of agricultural law institutions. Core ownership issues are obviously regulated by civil law. To describe the general features of property law, as a particular legal category, A.Stelmachowski indicates that property law 1) possesses the most comprehensive content as regards the relationship of the subject to the property attributed to him; 2) awards the owner exclusive right (a certain monopoly) as regards a specified object; 3) is characterized by a singular flexibility. All of these features can be referred to various kinds of ownership, regardless of its subject, including agricultural property. The originality of A. Stelmachowski’s approach to ownership arises from a proposed construction which is different to the classic, civil law model of ownership. This model has been inherited from Roman law (triad of ownership), which stressed the absolute rights of the owner. The owner had rights but no obligations towards the others, on the contrary, they are obligated to respect the rights of the owner. The protection of agricultural property is a continuation of the essential idea of the concept Author, and thus encompasses not only the substantive nature of agricultural law but property, that is a farmstead, itself. Important are both the subject and the scope (intensity) of protection. To protect the individual components civil regulations on property are applied, and to protect the farm, it is necessary to restrict the right to dispose of its components at will. When considering the subject of protection, one should take note of two elements: 1) what goods in various historical periods effected protection of the property law, and equally 2) whose interests were taken into account when awarding the protection, in other words, this will be a query regarding the function of property law. The interest (function) which brought about protection of agricultural property in the legal order currently in place in Poland could be described as execution by farmstead proprietors of European Union legislation on the use of agricultural holdings. Similarly as in the period of socialist economy in agriculture, the legal measures are rooted in a model of farming administration developed outside Poland, and introduced here.Uniwersytet Warszawski911512