RESEARCH STRATEGY
1) Is it possible for a foreigner to acquire and privately hold
land in Belarus?
Search engine strategy
Starting with a general
search engine might be useful. Using the Google search engine (www.google.com),
enter the following search query:
foreign ownership
of land Belarus
One of the first hits, Legisloation
(sic) firm from Byelorussia WWW Belarus
provides a list of legislation from Belarus.
This link is written in
poor English, which might suggest that the document it leads to will not
be very useful. Nevertheless, as it is one of the first hits that Google
returns it could be worth looking at.
Click on the link to Legisloation
(sic) firm from Byelorussia WWW Belarus.
Although some of these links
look promising, the webpage is very badly organised, in poor English and
contains much outdated legislation.
Research tip
When conducting online research, always
consider the following:
1) Does the information included in
the website come from an authoritative source?
2) Is the website well written?
3) When was the website last updated?
4) How well organised is the website? |
Returning to the hits page
in Google, find the link to the Index of Economic Freedom 2006
– Belarus.
The extract provided by
Google under this link states that “The Government does not permit
foreigners to own land”. While this would seem to answer question
1, it is important to follow the link and read the information in full
in order to gain a complete understanding of the current legal situation
concerning foreign ownership of land.
Answer
No.
However, foreigners
are permitted to lease land for up to 99 years.
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2) Is there any general legislation regarding environmentally hazardous
industries?
Using the Google search
engine, enter the following search query:
environmental law
Belarus
One of the first links returned,
Legislation Belarus, takes us to a list or directory
of legislation in Belarus. In this directory you will find links to the
Law on protection of the Environment (PDF) and
On Protection of the Environment (HTML).
The directory contains a
link to the Code of the republic of Belarus on Land,
as well as links to numerous other laws of Belarus. The answer to question
2 may be found here, although more principled Internet search techniques
may also lead you to useful sources of law in Belarus.
Directory search
Discovering the Belarus
legislation directory above was more or less due to luck, as we had not
conducted a search aimed at finding such a directory. Such directories
can be a much more useful starting point for online research than search
engines.
Search engines and directories
will often ultimately lead you to the same resources. However, it is sometimes
better to begin your research by using an authoritative index, rather
than spend time trying different combinations of keywords, phrases, domains,
etc.
The information in a directory
is arranged in an index with sub-categories. In addition, some directories
will contain a search function which allows you to search for topics within
the directory.
Maintaining a list of good
law directories is essential to conducting efficient legal research online.
Law directories can be found by using a standard search engine to search
for queries such as:
"legal directory"
"legal research"
"legal research
online"
Using the Google search
engine, enter the following search query:
legal research directory
foreign law
Click on the link Wash-Law
Web. This link will take you to a list of online sources
of law. Follow the links under the heading International Law
until you get to the directory of Belarus law.
Find and click on the link
to The National Legal Internet Portal of the Republic of Belarus.
The National Legal Internet
Portal of the Republic of Belarus is a constantly updated source of Belarus
law and related information. Information can be found by either following
the various links included in the portal, or by using the search function
at the top of the page.
Go to the search function
and select in other sections from the pull-down menu. Enter the
following search query:
environment
This will lead you to a
list of documents on environmental law in Belarus. Use these documents
to find the answer to question 2.
3) Is there any specific legislation regarding the paper pulp industry?
Use the documents you found when researching
question 2 to answer question 3.
Answer
No specific legislation
regarding the paper pulp industry exists.
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Further to the above questions, the partner has asked you to prepare
a list of
directories of foreign law that you find during your research, which can
be emailed
to your colleagues.
Use the search methods outlined in question
2 to compile your list.
Answer
Useful directories of foreign law
include:
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