Both legally and in practice there are two distinct sides of the protection of our subject: the quantitative aspects of ‘land protection’ and the qualitative aspect of ‘soil protection.’ The former seeks to reduce the waste of natural resources by protecting the amount of the used land, the latter seeks to reduce the pollution or degradation of the environment by maintaining soil quality. The impacts of human activities (such as agricultural production) on the living and non-living environment necessitate precautionary use and care for the environment by the land users, active regulatory enforcement through fiscal policies by the State and precautionary use by all others from civil society. All this requires the application of well thought-out and coordinated soil protection methods on the part of land users and complex soil protection legislation on the part of the State. The specificity of land and soil protection legislation is that, unlike air and water, land is invariably private or public property. The State carries out its soil protection tasks primarily through the maintenance and operation of a system of public institutions. Land users and landowners are directly liable for compliance with soil protection rules; therefore, their legal status and the restrictions on the content of their rights (both private and public) will be highlighted in the analysis. Agricultural technologies must also be examined in this context. The aim of the research is to highlight the tensions in soil protection legislation that may contribute to soil degradation processes.

The sub-chapter presents the international characteristics of the EU’s legislation on land and soil protection policy.