Land lease contract and prior right of lessee to concluding the new land lease contract - case of Slovakia

Land lease is one of the few possible ways to use the agricultural land effectively. This is caused by problems in the proprietary and user relationships, therefore the agricultural land lease and its legal regulation is especially important for Slovakia. This paper deals with the selected legal arrangements related to the agricultural land lease in Slovakia with an objective to identify application problems faced by lessees and lessors of agricultural land. When regulating the agricultural land lease relationships, the Slovak law maker prefers dispositive legal norms. However, this method is rarely used in the application practice. Contracting parties often focus only on obligatory characters of the contract, relying on the legal text of dispositive provisions. The legal arrangement of the lessee’s prior right to sign the new lease contract attracts a particular attention. Current legal regulation of this lessee’s right seems to be unenforceable; on the other hand, it collides with the basic human rights. This provision needs to be either cancelled or adjusted so that it achieves the objective defined by the law maker and so that it is legally enforceable in compliance with superior legal norms