The «ecosystemization» of the objects of environmental law in the context of the implementation and realization of the ecosystem approach

Abstract

The issue of determining the objects of environmental law ofUkrainefrom the very beginning of the formation of this branch of law doesn’t lose its relevance. Numerous monographs, scientific articles, abstracts and other publications appear that study the scientific and methodological aspects of the development of the doctrine of objects of environmental law, analyze the theoretical approaches to their understanding, substantiate the position about the need to highlight new objects of environmental legal regulation etc.

Supporting the position expressed by many environmental lawyers about the need to rethink traditional ideas about environmental law and taking into account the latest trends in the development of international environmental law, primarily related to the implementation of the concept of sustainable development and the ecosystem approach, the author believes that the study of environmental law in Ukraine from just that angle view deserves special attention. Given this, the purpose of the article is to analyze the legislative and scientific foundations of understanding the objects of environmental law ofUkrainein the context of the implementation and realization of the ecosystem approach.

The ecosystem approach, which is being actively developed under the Convention on Biological Diversity, is defined as a strategy for the integrated management of land, water and living resources that ensures their conservation and sustainable use on an equitable basis. By analogy with the ecologization of law and legislation, which in general terms represents the process of implementation environmental legal principles and norms into all branches of law and the relevant legislation regulating human activities related to environmental impact, the process of implementation the ecosystem approach into the legal regulation of environmental relations it is proposed to call the «ecosystemization» of environmental law and legislation.

In the author’s opinion, the necessary condition for the implementation and realization of the ecosystem approach in environmental law and legislation of Ukraine is not so much recognition of the ecosystem as a separate object on an equal basis with others, but understanding of all objects of environmental and legal regulation and the environment as a whole in the ecosystem context. Indeed, it is obvious that the use of natural resources, as a certain useful property of natural objects, on the basis of the ecosystem approach, can be discussed only if the natural objects themselves are «ecosystemized». That is, when designating natural objects in environmental legislation and their study in the environmental legal doctrine, their ecosystem characteristics must be taken into account.

Based on a thorough analysis of regulatory legal acts and the views of scientists, a tendency to gradual «ecosystemization» of objects of environmental law of Ukraine was identified and it was assumed that this tendency will continue and intensify, and in the distant, but foreseeable future, all natural objects and the environment as a whole will be studied by scientists and determined in environmental legislation precisely in the ecosystem context. According to the author, this approach will allow to overcome the fragmentation of environmental law ofUkraineand create a holistic legal basis for the qualitative regulation of social environmental relations.