Protection of Ownership Rights and Public Policy on Economic Sanctions
Project summary
In September 2003 LFMI completed a half-year project “Protection of Ownership Rights and Public Policy on Economic Sanctions” which was implemented in co-operation with the Lithuanian Centre for Human Rights. The goal of the project was to promote the development of an effective ownership protection system by identifying the problems related to the establishment of the ownership concept in the Lithuanian law and by submitting recommendations on how to better protect ownership rights in relation to the establishment of economic sanctions and their application.
Within the framework of this project, a quantitative survey was conducted to find out the opinion of Lithuanian companies about tax administration and policy on protection of ownership rights. The survey showed that, contrary to a popular belief, the biggest danger to the ownership of Lithuanian business people is posed by ill-written laws and their inappropriate implementation rather than the acts of law enforcement agencies and tax administrators. A total of 45.5% of respondents believe that their ownership is not safe and as much as 50.8% claim that more explicit and stable laws would be a decisive factor in reducing the number of violations of tax laws.
The major task of this project was to develop a comprehensive study on policy of ownership rights and economic sanctions. It presents analysis of regulation of ownership rights in principal international and national legal acts. According to the analysis, the ownership right and its interpretation are conceived virtually the same both in the European Human Rights Convention, the Constitution of Lithuania and other legal documents in Lithuania. However, striving for better protection of ownership rights, it is essential to amend certain legal acts and the principles of legislation.
The study also analyses economic sanctions laid down in the Lithuanian legal acts. A special focus is placed on provisions of the Law of Tax Administration and the Code of Administrative Violations of Law. The central object of this analysis is the problem of compatibility of ownership rights and economic sanctions.
The results of the project were presented at a press conference in April and a seminar held in June. The project was financed by Democracy Commission Small Grants Program, U.S. Embassy. The study in Lithuanian can be accessed on-line: http://www.lrinka.lt/Projektai/Nuosaps.phtml.
