Department of Land, Urban Planning and Environmental Law

Head of the department: Vinnitsky Andrey Vladimirovich
Doctor of Juridical Sciences
Address: 620137, г.Екатеринбург, ул.Комсомольская, 23, к. 406
Telephone: (343) 374-56-75
E-mail: ecoland@usla.ru

In 1953, the Department of collective farm, land and labour law was established at the Sverdlovsk Law Institute. Its first head was Doctor of Law, Professor D. N. Isupov. After a number of reorganizations in the structure of the University and the Department itself, it was named the Department of Land and Environmental law, retaining it until 2020. Then it was transformed into the Department of Land, Urban Planning and Environmental Law.

The founders of the Department were Professor Dmitry Isupov (Director of SLI in 1943-1953), Alexander Frolovich Kozlov, Veniamin Fedorovich Yakovlev, Vladimir Shamilevich Shaikhatdinov, Boris Alexandrovich Voronin, Alexander Anisimovich Zabelyshensky, Viktor Viktorovich Kruglov, Anatoly Ivanovich Bobylev, Fanis Mansurovich Ryanov, Alexander Alexandrovich Ryabov, Rinat Khamitovich Gabitov and Associate Professors: E. Kh. Yusupov, F. S. Abdula, I. V. Blinkov, V. G. Plakhuta, I. V. Tupiko, V. F. Gorbova, F. Kh. Adikhanov. The founders of the department laid the theoretical foundation of land law, legal protection of the environment and formed scientific provisions for the development of land and environmental law in modern conditions of socio-economic development of Russia.

From 1995 to 2020, the head of the department was Viktor Viktorovich Kruglov - a full member (academician) of the Russian Ecological Academy, Honored Lawyer of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Law. Professor V.V.Kruglov has been teaching at the department from 1974 to the present. Viktor Viktorovich Kruglov defended his candidate thesis at the Law Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1980 under the supervision of Professor V. V. Petrov and Associate Professor A. A. Zabelyshensky on the topic "Rights and obligations of an industrial enterprise for environmental protection". In 1999, he defended his doctoral thesis "Organizational and legal problems of environmental protection in industry in the modern period".

In total, Kruglov V. V. published more than 170 scientific papers, including 6 monographs, 10 textbooks and 3 brochures. 12 works of these have been published in English and French, including in the United States and the Netherlands. The most significant are: Organizational and legal issues of environmental protection in industry. Sverdlovsk, 1989; Legal issues of environmental protection. Ekaterinburg, 1993; Legal protection of the environment in the operation of industrial enterprises. Ekaterinburg, 1998; Modern organizational and legal problems of environmental protection in the Russian industry. Ekaterinburg, 2000.

During this period, according to the results of research, teachers of the Department A. S. Shirinovskaya, A. A. Krasikova, O. A. Yastrebkova, I. A. Romshin, L. A. Belykh, V. P. Pokatova, V. A. Vlasov, V. V. Varaksin defended their candidate theses. O. A. Yastrebkova defended her doctoral dissertation based on the materials of Russian and French environmental legislation and taking into account management activities in France. E.S.Fyodorova and A.S. Bulgakova defended their Master's theses on environmental legislation in Canada and Sweden.

Since 2020, a new stage of development of the Department has begun. Its title includes urban planning and legal specialization, Andrey Vladimirovich Vinnitsky, Doctor of Law, was elected as the head of the Department. Professor A.V. Vinnitskiy specializes in the problems of legal regulation of public ownership of land and other natural resources, in the legal regulation of urban planning activities, and also continues to read public law disciplines at the Department of Administrative Law of the University. His monograph "Public property", published in 2013 in the publishing house "Statute", was widely known. Its publication preceded the defense of his doctoral thesis on this topic in the same year (official opponents: prof. G. A Gadzhiev - judge of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation; Prof. Yu.N. Starilov - now the dean of the Law Faculty of Voronezh State University; Prof. O. A. Yastrebov - now the rector of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia).

Currently, the department has 12 full-time teachers, 4 part-time teachers. Among the members of the Department, there are 3 Doctors of Juridical Sciences (professors V. Sh. Shaikhatdinov, V. V. Kruglov, A. V. Vinnitskiy) and 6 candidates of sciences (associate professors O. V. Vagina, E. Yu. Gaevskaya, V. P. Pokatova, E. Yu. Pelvitskaya, L. V. Sonina, senior teacher I. N. Kharinov). Preparation of theses and research work are carried out by senior teachers O. F. Listopad, L. Ya. Savvina, N. M. Shepeleva, E. V. Golyshev, V. N. Kapitsky, L. Yu. Kuznetsov, E. V. Maksimova (judge of the Sverdlovsk regional court), and teacher I. V. Krutya.

Most of the teachers of the Department are practicing lawyers in the field of land, environmental, and urban planning law; some of them are known for their participation in the resolution and examination of the most complex and high-profile legal disputes and projects in the Ural region and beyond.

The Department actively conducts research in the following main areas:

• public property rights and other proprietary rights to land and other natural resources;
• legal basis for rational land use, development and urban planning activities;
• legal regime of agricultural land;
• public services and state control in the field of land relations and nature management;
• legal protection of the environment in industry;
• legal basis for ensuring the environmental safety of Russia and the right of citizens to a favorable environment;
• economic and legal mechanism of environmental protection;
• legal protection of water bodies, lands, forests;
• legal basis for solid municipal waste management.

Students receive a full-fledged and modern education in the field of land, environmental and urban planning law, the development of practical legal skills, allowing the University graduates to adapt to modern social and legal realities. The basic disciplines of the department - land law and environmental law - are taught at all levels of professional higher education: bachelor's, specialty, master's degree; urban planning law - in the master's and bachelor's degree in certain specializations. Lectures are held in active and interactive forms of education and are accompanied by visual material-slides. This form of education makes it easier for students to learn new knowledge.

To enhance the practical orientation of the educational process at the Department:

• educational courses and special courses were implemented, in particular "Legal regulation of land turnover", "Legal clinic";
• round tables form of work has been developed, in the framework of which, jointly with representatives of state and municipal authorities, discussion of the most pressing problems of law enforcement and the search for ways, means and ways of solving them are practiced;
• student conferences are held on environmental law, land and urban planning law;
• students are involved in the work on solving practical problems of environmental protection in the framework of free legal assistance together with faculty members of the department.

A unique master's degree program "Lawyer in real estate, urban planning and natural resources" is being implemented on the basis of the Department at the Institute of Law and Business of USLU. 

Specialists of the Department have developed academic disciplines that have no analogues in other programs:

• current legal issues;
• current issues of urban planning law;
• legal protection of land;
• legal support for water protection and use;
• legal support for payment for subsoil use;
• legal regulation of state cadastral registration and state registration of rights to real estate;
• legal regulation of the organization of management and control of construction activities;
• legal regulation of subsoil protection and use;
• legal regulation of environmental expertise and environmental audit;
• consideration of land and environmental disputes by courts;
• consideration of disputes in the field of urban planning activities by courts;
• environmental aspects of legal regulation of economic activity;
• environmental payment;
• economic and legal mechanism of nature management and environmental protection.

The department has a qualified faculty capable of providing training for postgraduate and doctoral students. Professors V. V. Kruglov and A. V. Vinnitskiy are members of the Dissertation Council for the defense of candidate and doctoral dissertations D 212.282.02, founded on the basis of the Ural State Law University.

The faculty of the Department is in demand within the framework ofrule-making activities activities, the Department staff is regularly involved in the development and examination of regulatory legal acts at the federal, regional and municipal levels.

Teachers of the department participate in the preparation of scientific and legal opinions at the request of federal state authorities, including the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, regional and municipal authorities, as well as legal entities and individuals.

The Department maintains scientific contacts with leading research groups involved in the development of land, environmental and urban planning law: Department of Environmental and Land Law of the Law Institute of Lomonosov Moscow State University; Department of Land and Environmental Law, Russian State University of Justice; sector environmental, land and agrarian law, Institute of state and law of RAS; Department of Environmental and Agrarian Legislation of the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation; Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Law of the Kutafin Moscow State Law University (MSLA); Department of Land Law and State Registration of Real Estate, Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography, etc.

The Department's specialists are regular participants, speakers and moderators at international and all-Russian forums, congresses and scientific conferences (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Riga, Astana, Almaty, Bishkek, Tashkent, etc.), as well as experts of leading business publications in the Ural region. Since 2009, Professor A.V. Vinnitsky is a co-anchor of the weekly legal program on the radio "Echo of Moscow-Ekaterinburg", organized for the purpose of legal education and raising the legal culture of citizens.

Teachers of the department demonstrate significant publication activity on the most pressing issues of land, environmental and urban planning law. In addition, Professor V. V. Kruglov is a member of the editorial boards of the journals "Environmental Law", "Russian Juridical Journal", as well as the editorial board of the journal "Business, Management and Law". Professor A.V. Vinnitsky is a member of the editorial board of the journal "Economic justice in the Ural district". Associate Professor O. V. Vagina - responsible for issues of the scientific and practical economic and legal journal "Business, management and law".