Rational and irrational in the practice of applying legislation on special economic zones

• Ниязова Марина Валентиновна

  Marina V. Niyazova. Vladivostok State University. Vladivostok. Russia

Abstract. The effects of the functioning of the Institute of special economic zones can be seen in different areas. The study illustrates an example of the consequences of applying and canceling the rule on granting land plots in state or municipal ownership to residents of the free port Vladivostok for rent without auction. It shows the presence of the rational and the irrational in the decision-making process in the law
enforcement sphere. The paper determines that the federal law on the free port Vladivostok as a rational element provides the right to take advantage of state support measures for entrepreneurial activity, in the process of implementation of which the irrationality of the choice of a resident is seen. On the bases of the new institutional economic theory and behavioral economics provisions, the author carries out a statistical
analysis of disputes by years, courts, the results of the consideration of cases in 2015–2022, as well as a formal-legal and comparative-legal analysis of the arguments of the resident – plaintiff and the court. The use of these methods makes biases visible for the analysis and elimination, which means they allow us to reduce the negative effects. The high proportion of residents’ administrative disputes in the field of land legal relations and the low level of their satisfaction confirm the existence of a problem caused by the irrationality of the behavior of subjects of law. It reveals the peak growth of this category of claims after the benefit’s cancellation, which indicates its significance for the preferential regime of the free port Vladivostok. The author makes the conclusion that the active appeal of residents to the court for right protection, which they already lost, demonstrates systemic biases in various types of cognitive traps. The results of the study can be useful in improving preferential regimes: preferential land use is still valid in other types of special economic zones in Russia.
Keywords: special economic zones institute, free port Vladivostok, rationality and irrationality, litigation, land legal relations.