Agricultural law

A farm is a business, a home and a piece of land at once, and it usually belongs to a family across generations. Decisions that look purely practical — renting another field, taking on a partner, applying for a subsidy, handing over to a child — each carry legal consequences that can outlast the people who made them. The rules come from several directions at once: property, leases, environmental regulation and public funding.

Agricultural law governs how land is held and used, how a farming business is run, and how it passes on:

• the rules on agricultural leases — duration, rent, renewal and the tenant’s rights;
• the rules on buying, selling and pre-empting agricultural land;
• the rules on land use, zoning and building on agricultural land;
• the rules on environmental obligations — manure, emissions, water and protected areas;
• the rules on subsidies, entitlements and the conditions attached to public funding;
• the rules on cooperation between farmers, contract farming and supply agreements;
• the rules on the legal form of a farming business and the liability it carries;
• the rules on farm succession, and on handing a business to the next generation;
• the rules on disputes over land, leases and neighbouring rights.

Our lawyers can support you in all these areas of law.