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RELATIONSHIPS RELATED TO PRECIOUS STONES AND PRECIOUS METALS AS
AN OBJECT OF CIVIL LAW REGULATION IN UZBEKISTAN
Adolat Settiyeva Faxriddin qizi
Lecturer, Tashkent State University of Law.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Email: adolatsettiyeva@gmail.com
Abstract:
This study examines relationships related to precious stones and precious metals as objects
of civil law regulation within the legal framework of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The research
addresses the gap in national jurisprudence regarding the comprehensive study of civil-legal
regulation of precious stones and metals in their natural state, moving beyond traditional focus on
secondary market regulation and illegal circulation prevention.
The analysis begins with constitutional foundations, particularly Article 68 of the Uzbekistan
Constitution, which establishes underground resources as national wealth under state protection
while emphasizing rational utilization. The study traces recent legislative developments, including
Presidential Decree PQ-4030 of 2018, which legalized precious metals extraction through
prospecting methods as entrepreneurship, addressing previous criminogenic situations arising from
unregulated extraction activities. The study identifies three primary categories of civil-legal
relationships: organizational relationships regarding land use rights for extraction activities, delivery
relationships between prospectors and authorized purchasers, and liability relationships for regulatory
violations.
Keywords:
precious metals, precious stones, civil law regulation, property rights, constitutional law,
mining rights, contractual obligations, state control, entrepreneurship, legal relationships, Uzbekistan
legislation, natural resources
In national jurisprudence, relationships related to precious stones and precious metals in their natural,
pure state and issues of regulating these objects as subjects of civil law have not been extensively and
comprehensively studied. In most cases, relationships related to precious stones and precious metals
have been studied by legal scholars in terms of regulating their circulation in secondary markets,
preventing or restricting their illegal circulation, protecting consumer rights, preventing product
counterfeiting, and similar topics.
In international practice, most specialized research has also been devoted to preventing illegal
circulation of precious items in secondary markets and reducing criminal-legal and criminalistic
situations related to them, which indicates the need to study the civil-legal regulation aspect of
relationships related to precious stones and precious metals.
Furthermore, according to Article 68 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan, our
fundamental law states that land, underground resources, water, flora and fauna, and other natural
resources are national wealth, their rational use is necessary, and they are under state protection.
In this constitutional norm being explained, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that mineral
resources and their components, including precious stones and metals, are considered absolute
property of the state. At the same time, this norm emphasizes the necessity of rational use of this
category of natural resources in forms and procedures established by legislation.
This constitutional norm expresses the "people's property" concept enshrined in legislation on
mineral resources and serves to justify the state's right to manage resources (specifically through
licensing, notification, and permit systems).
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Based on current rapidly developing market economy conditions, Uzbekistan has also begun reforms
aimed at slightly deviating from traditional established regulation in the field, actively participating in
international relations, liberalizing the domestic market, and improving national legislation regulating
the circulation of precious metals and precious stones. Examples include clarifying the boundaries of
restrictions on precious metals circulation, expanding the circle of civil-legal circulation participants
in the field, and implementing liberalization policies regarding licensing issues and others.
Additionally, as indicated in the "Development Strategy of New Uzbekistan for 2022-2026," it can
be noted that every person is guaranteed to enjoy rights and interests created by free civil society.
Also, during the past 6-7 years in our country's history, attention began to be paid at the government
level to developing precious metals extraction through prospecting methods as a type of
entrepreneurship, ensuring employment, efficiently developing surface land plots, and increasing
gold and jewelry production, and legal mechanisms were created for ordinary physical and legal
entities to engage in non-industrial metal extraction.
Accordingly, in 2018, Presidential Decree No. PQ-4030 "On measures to create conditions for
implementing precious metals extraction activities through prospecting methods" was adopted to
develop precious metals extraction through prospecting as entrepreneurship, ensure employment,
efficiently develop surface land plots, and increase gold and jewelry production. The adoption of this
single normative-legal document alone made the regulation of relationships in field activities,
particularly price determination of extracted precious metals, their purchase, accounting, storage, and
sale, a pressing issue for today's jurisprudence.
Therefore, studying relationships related to precious stones and precious metals as objects of civil-
legal regulation is very important. It is expedient to study practical and theoretical problems of
regulating civil-legal relationships related to precious stones and precious metals to regulate social
relationships arising in this field through civil-legal methods and means, and to implement
guarantees for civil law subjects to enjoy rights and interests created by free civil society.
Achievements from conducting research can create grounds for filling existing scientific-theoretical,
normative-legal, and practical gaps.
Before expressing opinions about relationships related to precious stones and precious metals being
objects of civil-legal regulation, it is expedient to briefly discuss the content of the concept of legal
regulation.
According to the National Legal Portal and Legal Encyclopedia of the Republic of Uzbekistan, legal
regulation is targeted influence on people's behavior and social relationships through legal means
(legal norms, legal relationships, individual instructions, etc.). That is, relationships between parties
entering into relationships such as price determination of extracted precious metals and stones, their
purchase, accounting, storage, and sale are formed based on civil-legal contracts, which, firstly,
expresses the behavior of these relationship participants, and secondly, means that subjects legally
operating in the field increase by one more as a result of this relationship. In both cases, since
contracts exist, these relationships are regulated within the scope of civil law. From the above
example, it can be understood that relationships related to selling extracted precious stones and
metals are objects of civil-legal regulation.
Legal regulation has its methods, which are divided into two types: First, authoritarian method - a
method of exerting authoritative-imperative influence on social relationship subjects regulated by
legal norms; Second, autonomous method - a method of regulating relationships between mutually
equal participants, which gives parties the right to resolve issues related to their mutual relationships
regulated by legal norms themselves.
It should be emphasized that social relationships related to selling extracted precious stones and
metals are managed by both authoritarian and autonomous methods of legal regulation. Because
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social relationships in this field arise through party equality and entry into relationships based on
desire and will, and are regulated based on stages established in legislation. At the same time, the
government can also give instructions about which subjects extracted precious products can be sold
to. For example, prospectors can sell to legal entities or individual entrepreneurs licensed to produce
jewelry items.
Accordingly, Article 2 of the Civil Code establishes relevant norms about relationships regulated by
civil legislation: "civil legislation determines the legal status of civil circulation participants,
foundations for the emergence of property rights and other real rights, intellectual activity result
rights, and their implementation procedures, regulates contractual obligations and other obligations,
as well as other property and related personal non-property relationships."
O. Oqyulov, considering that organizational-legal relationships are part of civil law, writes:
sometimes such relationships arise between subjects that, by their nature, are neither property nor
personal non-property. This refers to civil-legal relationship participants entering into organizational
relationships for forming certain structures (establishing legal entities, forming legal entity unions,
joint non-profit cooperation).
According to the above rule, relationships related to precious stones and metals express specific
property and organizational relationships. In regulating social relationships arising in precious stones
and metals circulation, the civil law field has special significance alongside other areas of law -
administrative, environmental, land, tax, and labor law. It must be acknowledged that while price
determination, purchase, or storage condition establishment of precious metals and stones manifests
as specific property relationships, work carried out by organizations in the precious metals and stones
field (State Hallmarking Chamber under the Ministry of Finance, State Committee for Geology and
Mineral Resources, Central Bank, Almalyk and Navoi mining complexes, etc.) creates organizational
relationships. In this case, relationships arising from precious metals and stones circulation become
objects of civil-legal regulation.
First, when does delivery of precious metals by persons owning precious metals through prospecting
begin? - When an agreement is reached between a person owning precious metals through
prospecting and one of the subjects legally permitted to purchase precious metals. According to this
contract, the subject authorized to receive precious metals pays for precious metals or stones
delivered in proper order and meeting established requirements. Here it can be seen that as a type of
purchase-sale contract, the precious metals sale contract determines parties' behavior. That is, seller
and buyer subjects fulfill their contractual rights and obligations based on contract conditions
(obligations to deliver gold obtained through prospecting and payments corresponding to delivered
gold value). This described situation indicates that precious stones and metals circulation as an object
of civil-legal regulation represents property relationships.
As emphasized above, according to Article 68 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan,
"Land, underground resources, water, flora and fauna, and other natural reserves are national wealth,
their rational use is necessary, and they are under state protection." Essentially, the concept of
"natural reserves" in this norm includes precious materials. According to Article 169 of the current
Civil Code, "natural resources are also objects of property rights." Also, according to the first part of
Article 214 of the Civil Code, "natural wealth is republic property."
Entering relationships related to precious stones and metals circulation is a constitutional duty of both
citizens and the state. According to Article 2 of the Civil Code, citizens, legal entities, and the state
are participants in relationships regulated by civil legislation.
Next, the main limitation of precious stones and metals circulation is the state's preferential right to
purchase valuables. However, this right should not be viewed as a preferential purchase right in civil-
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legal sense. In civil law, preferential rights do not limit property owners' freedom to choose methods
of property use.
Based on the above, precious stones and metals circulation as an object of civil-legal regulation can
be grouped as follows:
1.
Organizational relationships regarding physical and legal entities' use of special land plots
allocated for precious metals extraction;
2.
Relationships regarding delivery to subjects legally permitted to purchase precious metals,
i.e., delivery and storage of mineral wealth by prospectors;
3.
Relationships regarding establishing legal liability for violating established legal procedures
related to precious stones and metals circulation.
The precious stones and metals circulation process is complex and encompasses numerous
organizational relationships. These relationships are reflected in the Civil Code of the Republic of
Uzbekistan, "Law on Land Resources," "Law on Precious Metals and Precious Stones," "Law on
Currency Regulation," "Law on Nature Protection," and other special normative-legal documents
regulating the field.
Organizational relationships regarding organizing physical and legal entities' activities using land
plots containing precious metals and providing services by authorized state bodies include:
1.
Implementing legally established conditions for obtaining permits for land use rights in
precious metals extraction through prospecting, including: a) Organizing auctions for land use rights
for precious metals extraction through prospecting; b) Obtaining permits through "E-AUCTION"
electronic trading platform auction results and conducting mining work through the "License"
information system in legally established procedures;
2.
Fulfilling technical requirements for precious metals extraction through prospecting,
including: a) Compliance with land use conditions, including permitted methods and means of
precious metals extraction through prospecting, and requirements for equipment and technology used;
3.
Price determination, purchase, accounting, storage, and other legally permitted methods of
selling obtained precious materials within legally established timeframes and conditions;
4.
After termination of land use rights for precious metals extraction through prospecting, land
users' obligation to recultivate land plots and prepare them for future use.
References:
1.
Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Article 68. (National Database of Legislation,
01.05.2023, No. 03/23/837/0241)
https://lex.uz/uz/docs/-6445145
. Civil Code of the Republic of
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Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. PF-60 dated January 28, 2022 "On
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