環境保全을 위한 土地利用規制 制度의 檢討

Land use regulations have important implications for a means to environmental conservation; actually, there have been increasing cases where the Government designates a specific, extensive area for the conservation of natural resources & landscape, water sources, soil, animals & plants, groundwater, etc. so that land uses (e.g. construction activities) are regulated within the conservation area. Legal grounds for these regulations involve the two legal systems: the Constitution and other laws. Constitutional grounds can be found in Articles 23, 35, 120 and 122 of the former. Legal grounds are rooted in various provisions on land use regulations contained in various law, including the Basic Act on Land Use Regulation; the Act on Land Plan and Use (a clause providing the establishment of various use districts and areas); the Environmental Policy Act (a clause providing special conservation areas); the Natural Environment Conservation Act (a clause providing ecology & landscape conservation areas); the Soil Environment Conservation Act (a clause providing soil conservation areas); and the Water Supply Act (a clause providing water conservation areas). Problems with land use regulations for environmental conservation include a lack of systematicness among laws and regulations on land uses, a mis-designation of conservation areas in terms of environmental conservation, insufficient regulations on supports for residents or compensations for their due losses or damages, etc. To improve those problems, legal amendments for the establishment of an organic coordination between development-related laws and conservation-related laws, and a legal harmonization between the Natural Environment Conservation Act and the Act on Land Plan and Use and between the Basic Act on National Land and the Environmental Policy Act, are required.