Administrative law tools regulating high-rise construction in historic city districts: Ukraine and Germany

Abstract

Historical quarters in cities are a living embodiment of people’s culture and their collective memory, which preserve their heritage and past achievements. Urban identity depends on meeting the current needs while preserving the past. At the same time, urbanization exercise pressure on most countries, therefore they require updating administrative law regulation tools capable of protecting the identity of the rich national heritage. The aim of the article was a comparative legal analysis of the realities and prospects of preservation of historical districts of cities in the context of the practice of administrative law regulation of Ukraine and the Federal Republic of Germany. The methods of comparative legal analysis and observation were the leading methodological tools. The research revealed specific physical, socio-economic, and socio-cultural factors of urbanization, which caused noticeable and significant changes in the features of the administrative law tools that regulate urban planning. It was established that the widespread German concept providing that every planning act of a lower-level body must take into account certain mandatory provisions established by the acts of higher-level bodies is gradually being tested in Ukraine. It is substantiated that the armed aggression of the Russian Federation forces Ukraine to take further actions to build new safe real estate objects and preserving historically significant buildings that were damaged by war. In this context, the national administrative law tools that regulate urban planning in Ukraine will also be transformed. The vector of further scientific research will be a comparison of the practice of implementing administrative law tools that regulate urban planning in terms of post-war reconstruction in the selected states.