What Article 56 actually covers
Subsoil — the underground space and the minerals it holds — is a specially protected resource in Georgia, and every operation connected with it is subject to technical and environmental requirements fixed in advance. Article 56 of the Georgian Code of Administrative Offences addresses the failure to meet those requirements. It is worth understanding at the outset that the article applies even where you hold the right to use the subsoil perfectly lawfully. What it penalises is not the absence of a right, but non-compliance with the protective rules and norms that attach to the work itself.
The first part of the article gathers several distinct kinds of conduct into a single offence. What they have in common is that each one places either the subsoil itself, or the natural environment and structures around it, at risk:
- arbitrary building-up of the areas on which subsoil-use facilities are located;
- failure to comply with the requirements for protecting the subsoil, and for protecting the natural environment, buildings and structures from the harmful influence of works connected with subsoil use;
- breach of the rules and norms governing the liquidation and conservation of underground structures of various purposes belonging to a mineral-extracting enterprise;
- breach of the rules and norms on soil recultivation within the land allotment.