The purpose of the article is to identify the doctrinal (in the Russian Federation) and legal (in the Republic of Belarus) approaches to defining the concepts of "rational use of natural resources" and "rational use of land," including agricultural land. At the same time, in Russia, there are no legal definitions for the concept of "rational nature management" as a whole, or for the rational use of individual natural resources, including land in general and agricultural land specifically. Currently, "rationality of land use" in Russian legislation is usually formulated "by negation," i.e., it establishes a certain set of violations that indicate irrational use. The relevance of the research is determined by the fact that rational nature management is considered one of the national interests of Russia and its strategic national priorities, while in the Republic of Belarus, "conserving natural resources" is a goal of agricultural policy. The study of strategic planning documents and the legislation of both states is conducted based on general scientific as well as special methods (generalization, analysis, comparative legal, formal-legal, and others). The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that it reveals a tendency in doctrine and law enforcement to move away from considering the rational use of agricultural land solely in environmental terms and towards forming a broader approach that takes into account the economic and social aspects of this legal category, which is also confirmed by the studied materials of judicial practice. It is concluded that it is impossible to provide a universal definition of the concept of rational use of agricultural land in Russian law that would immediately resolve all problems and be applied as a kind of "template" in considering emerging disputes, due to its complexity and multifaceted nature. However, it would be advisable to establish at least a framework definition of rational land use, taking into account the experience of the Republic of Belarus.
Valentina Vladimirovna Ustyukova (Sun,) studied this question.