We live our social and economic life on the narrow land of our nation. Since the land available is too scarce to meet the rapidly increasing demands for land, the supplies of land are very limited.
Given such conditions and the socio-economic backgro...
We live our social and economic life on the narrow land of our nation. Since the land available is too scarce to meet the rapidly increasing demands for land, the supplies of land are very limited.
Given such conditions and the socio-economic background of land ownership, it may well be quite natural from the perspective of the public welfare that the land rights should be far more limited than other property rights. Although the land is an object of personal property right, its nature is highly public and social. Accordingly, the principle of public and social land supercedes any basic principle.
In order to solve various social problems arising from the rapid economic growth since 1960's, it has been inevitable for the government to intervene in the land law system, while citizens' property rights may be limited for the public interests. In addition, as the land resources are limited, not being reproduced, citizens have felt it necessary to control the land ownership by law. Thus, the social and public nature of land has been highlighted.
In such circumstances, this study was aimed at reviewing "Public Land Acquisition and Compensation Law" from a perspective of harmony between public and private interests and thereupon, examining various data published by Ministry of Construction and Transportation and Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the civil complaints filed with Korea Electric Power Corporation and thereby, addressing the problems involving smooth acquisition of land and compensation for landowners' loss and suggesting their solutions.
For an intensive study, the researcher limited the scope of study to the sites for electric power transmission and transformation stations and approached the issue of effective compensation for citizens' property losses from the perspective of harmony between public and private interests.
In order to achieve the goals of study, the researcher reviewed the foreign cases about compensation for the losses due to appropriation of land and thereupon, found the ways to reform our compensation system.
On the other hand, in order to analyze the conditions of the compensation for the losses of the land appropriated for sites for the electric power projects, the researcher reviewed and analyzed the complaints filed by the citizens with Korean Electric Power Corporation to address the problems and suggest their solutions. In addition, the researcher also analyzed the court proceedings related to compensation for losses and thereby, reviewed the judgements of the court about the bone of issues to find some insights for the legal reform for compensation for losses.
First of all, this study started from the perspective of harmony between public and private interests for the public projects and thereby, examined the efficiency of the compensation system. Since the compensation system is important for protection of the private property rights, the methods of study adopted were both theoretical and empirical.
In addition, the researcher reviewed the legal theories about the compensation for acquisition of the land, focusing on Land Compensation Law. In this connection, the researcher reviewed domestic and foreign codes, literature and preceding studies about the compensation system and thereby, established a theoretical ground for acquisition of the land and compensation thereof.
Then, the researcher analyzed the civil complaints and court proceedings for compensation of the losses incurred due to acquisition of the sites for power transmission and transformation facilities. The results of such analyses can be summarized as follows;
First, despite the electric power facilities are nation's basic and important facilities, citizens tended to conceive them as abhorrent or harmful facilities.
Second, the arguments that the electronic waves would blow damage to people prevailed against construction of such facilities.
Third, electric power facility construction was being delayed due to the local administrations who were too conscious of citizens' public opinions.
Fourth, the civil complaints were being more organized and specialized with the aids from the environmental NGOs.
Fifth, the complaints for such indirect damages as obstruction of views and downfall of land prices were increasing.
The solutions to the above problems can be summed up as follows;
In terms of the electric power facility construction,
First, it is essential for the corporation to construct a relationship of mutual trust and reliability with the interested parties.
Second, it is necessary to rearrange the relevant codes to lay out the ground for smooth construction of the electric power facilities.
Third, the relevant systems need to be reformed to the extent that the complaining citizens will be satisfied with the reforms.
Next, in terms of acquisition of the sites for electric power projects,
First, since the people living near the sites for power transmission and transformation facilities feel more psychological burden and suffer more losses from impeded land use and lower land prices than those living near nuclear or other electric power plants, it is quite natural for the government to compensate for their losses. Hence, the government is obliged to compensate for the losses as early as possible.
Second, it is necessary to introduce specific legal grounds instead of relying on the practices, while expanding the scope of indirect compensations.
Third, it is essential to make the compensation services more professional. To do so, it is desirable to train the professional compensation officials and thereby, enhance the capacity of the compensator organizations.
Fourth, it is necessary to extend the policy supports to the compensation for losses. To do so, it is deemed desirable to introduce some special provision in Electric Project Law so that the compensation may not be taxed, and that any lien may not impede the compensation.
Fifth, the procedures for acquisition of national and private lands should be streamlined.
As discussed above, it is required of the government to respond to citizens' fair requests for compensation for losses. All in all, this study addressed the problems arising from acquisition of the sites for construction of electric power facilities and thereby, suggested their solutions in order to acquire the public sites smoothly and minimize infringements on private properties.
Lastly, it is hoped that this study will be followed up by future studies which will conduct in-depth researches into a reasonable and well-balanced system for acquisition of the sites for electric power facilities and compensation for citizens' property losses.