ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

Conservation is the main problem facing humanity nowadays. The biosphere is strongly affected by all sorts of human activity. Mineral resources, rivers and forests of the Earth demand rational use. A wide variety of synthetic and numerous industrial materials alter the biosphere. The discharge of dust and gas into the atmosphere returns to the Earth in the form of acid rains. It also destroys the ozone layer of the Earth and causes “greenhouse effect”. The environmentally harmful consequences of human technological and industrial innovatory activities affected the formation and continuous development of law.

Environmental law is a body of (international or national) law that comprises those substantive, procedural and institutional rules which have their primary objective the protection of environment. The meaning of the term “environment” encompasses both the features and products of the natural world and those of human civilization – the living and working environment (see the Preamble of the Declaration of the United Nations Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment (UNCHE)). Acid rain, ozone depletion, climate change, loss of biodiversity, toxic and hazardous wastes, pollution of rivers and depletion of freshwater resources are some of the issues for emergent addressing in the environmental law.

The system of legal rules regulating relations between society and nature in their interaction constitutes the subject of the environmental law. The aim of the environmental law is the rational use of natural resources, conservation, revival and amelioration of the human environment, and providing for environmental safety. Land, air, depths, waters, forests, vegetation and wildlife, nature reserves are the objects of legal protection in the environmental law.

As a legal subject the environmental law possesses its substantial and procedural parts. The sources of the environmental law are the following: the international agreements (where Ukraine is a participant), the constitution and other laws of Ukraine, legal regulations, decrees and instructions of the highest authorities and of local government bodies.

The main principles of the environmental law are: the priority of human’s healthy life, the rational use of natural resources, the unification of ecological and economical interests of society, the observance of environmental law requirements, the publicity in adoption of significant environmental decisions and the international collaboration in the field of conservation.

The citizens of Ukraine have their environmental rights, guarantees and duties. A human right to a decent viable or healthy environment, the existence of state and public control over the observance of law, and legal liability for the environmental damage are among them.

The property law on the natural resources is divided into state, municipal and private property. The environmental right of ownership is regarded as the combination of legal rules regulating and protecting right of possession, right of use and right of disposal of natural resources in the human interests.

Поиск по сайту: