Konstantin Boytsov has provided his assessment on amendments to the federal law on cultural heritage

Head of the Real Estate and Construction Practice at Maxima Legal, Konstantin Boytsov, has provided his comments for Stroitelnij Ezhenedelnik on a bill that will introduce changes to the federal law that regulate cultural heritage. The changes will bring the law on obtaining approval for constructions in UNESCO-protected cultural and historical sites in line with the 1972 Convention on the Protection of World Heritage to which Russia acceded in 1988.

“Such a public function cannot be replaced by a general duty on private individuals to, at their own expense, undergo additional examinations and approvals for construction projects planned in protected areas without good reason. For the normal application of the Convention, it is necessary to create a simplified procedure for adopting a decision on the basis of statutory criteria for determining whether or not a particular construction project has an impact on the outstanding universal value of an area. The bill does not currently provide a procedure to consider such issues, as well as not defining clearly what constitutes significant influence”, Konstantin underlined.

To read the article in full (in Russian), please see Stroitelnij Ezhenedelnik’s website.