Land consolidation as a tool of rural development and its judicial review by action for annulment

Land consolidation is the process of consolidating and reorganizing fragmented and distorted parcels in a way that does not allow to be carried out agricultural activities economically in accordance with modern agricultural management principles. Land consolidation which has been in place since 18th century, based on legal regulations in Europe, is a tool of rural development that not only improves the productivity of agricultural holdings but also plays a role in raising the quality of life in rural areas. Land consolidation today, is accepted as a rural land arrangement which includes activities such as transportation, irrigation, drainage, soil improvement, landscaping, recreation, nature conservation. After the Agenda 2000 reform, the European Union, which has established a separate rural development policy from the Common Agricultural Policy, provides financial support to the member states and candidate countries through measures that are included in the regulations underlying the rural development policies and that directly involve land consolidation or indirectly support land consolidation. The land consolidation, which is an administrative act due to its legal nature and which is closely related to the right to property, has been regulated in Law on Agricultural Reform for Land Arrangement in Irrigation Areas No. 3083 and Law on Soil Conservation and Land Utilization No. 5403 in Turkish law. The legality of land consolidation is supervised through action for annulment. In the case law of the Council of State, in terms of preconditions, particularly "definite and executive proceedings" and time limits on legal action; and with regard to components of administrative act, contradictions to law in terms of rules on form are prominent. Despite the fact that it is a subjective administrative act, it is important that decrees of annulment are executed in order to affect other owners in the project area. In the first part of the study, land consolidation was deal with dimension of rural development; in the second part, its legal nature and judicial supervision were handled. Keywords: Land Consolidation, Rural Development, European Union's Rural Development Policy, Right to Property, European Convention on Human Rights, Administrative Act, Action for Annulment, Execution of Decrees.