PRIVATIZATION OF STATE PROPERTY AS A CIVIL-LAW MECHANISM: LEGAL NATURE, METHODS AND PROBLEMS (THE CASE OF UZBEKISTAN)
Keywords:
State property, privatization, sale-purchase agreement, civil-law transaction, State Assets Management Agency, transfer of ownership, investment obligations, transparency.Abstract
The article examines privatization as the principal civil-law mechanism for transferring state property into private ownership, on the basis of the 2024 Law of Uzbekistan “On Privatization of State Property” (No. ZRU-907). It analyses the dual legal nature of privatization — a public-law procedure culminating in a private-law sale-purchase transaction — the eight statutory methods of privatization, the sale-purchase agreement (concluded between the State Assets Management Agency as seller, the buyer and the asset holder), the buyer’s investment and social obligations, and the transfer and state registration of ownership, including the “without the right of disposal” restriction. The study identifies civil-law problems — the public/private boundary, the restriction on the buyer’s ownership, breach and reversal, invalidity of transactions, and transparency — and proposes directions for their resolution, taking into account the category of non-privatizable assets defined by Law No. ZRU-821.
