ACCESS TO TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE: ISSUES IN THE REGULATORY FRAMEWORK AND CIVIL LAW QUALIFICATION

Abstract

The legal category of “access to transport infrastructure”, which is significant for the civil law qualification of infrastructure relations, lacks a unified regulatory definition. In current legislation, access is associated with the infrastructure facility, terms of its use, services, approval procedures, authorization, and the regime of lawful infrastructure utilization. The purpose of this study is to identify the legal content of access to transport infrastructure and the grounds for correlating it with infrastructure services. Methods: the formal-legal method was employed to analyze federal laws, bylaws, and policy documents. The systemic-legal method was used to establish the relationship between access, authorization, infrastructure usage regimes, and security procedures. The comparative legal method was applied to compare various regulatory approaches to defining in transport, road, antitrust, and related infrastructure regulations. The methods of analysis and synthesis enabled the identification of the general qualifying characteristics of access. Results: the study substantiates that access to transport infrastructure should not be qualified solely as a single legal fact or as a consequence of a contract, since its content is shaped within the established framework of infrastructure operation, taking into account technical, organizational, economic, and procedural requirements. It is concluded that access to transport infrastructure is an integral part of the infrastructure service, representing a legally secured opportunity for the lawful and technologically feasible use of the infrastructure.