Authors: "Aleksey Anisimov", "Anatoliy Ryzhenkov"

Environmental Law in the Russian Federation

eBook: US $59 Special Offer (PDF + Printed Copy): US $108
Printed Copy: US $78
Library License: US $236
ISBN: 978-981-5049-17-6 (Print)
ISBN: 978-981-5049-16-9 (Online)
Year of Publication: 2022
DOI: 10.2174/97898150491691220101

Introduction

Environmental Law in the Russian Federation presents a comprehensive textbook on the current state of environmental legislation of the Russian Federation. The textbook is divided into three sections that are ordered for an increasing level of specialization in the subject.

- The first section (General Part) gives a definition of environmental law, formulates its principles and considers the sources of environmental law and legal relations. Readers will learn about the issues related to the ownership of natural resources, the legal framework and specifics of environmental protection and management, and associated human and civil rights. The distinguishing features of economic regulation in the area of environmental protection as well as issues of responsibility for environmental offenses are also covered.

- The second section (Special Part) sets forth the main environmental requirements for certain types of economic and other human activities and the specifics of environmental protection in areas with a special environmental legal regime (specially protected areas and ecological disaster zones). Chapters in this section consider the main areas of protection of certain natural objects (water, forests, land, etc.).

- The third section (Specialized Part) clarifies the main areas of international cooperation in the field of environmental protection and considers the main characteristics of the environmental protection experience of other countries.

The textbook is an essential reference for law and business students in Russian schools. It is also of interest to entrepreneurs planning ventures in Russia and researchers involved in comparative legal analysis.

Reviews

Review 1

Any science becomes more effective when there is a contact between various science schools since, as they say in Russia, “the truth is born in argument”. Despite the fact that the textbook on environmental law, written by A. Anisimov and A. Ryzhenkov, does not place a special emphasis on debatable doctrinal aspects, the authors couldn’t omit them completely. They both had to refer to some doctrinal disputes observed in Russian environmental legal science, since they sought the objective truth.

For example, Russian scholars still have no clear understanding of which functions of state environmental management should be distinguished and which do not have an independent significance. There is no unambiguous understanding of what ecological disaster zones are, and what kind of restrictions should be established there. It is possible to give a fairly large number of such examples.

In this regard, the method of presenting educational material chosen by the authors deserves high praise. On the one hand, they tried not to dig into scientific disputes. On the other hand, they have clearly argued their position regarding many debatable issues of the theory and practice of environmental protection.

It should be noted that critical evaluation of legislation is not much encouraged in the textbooks which are supposed to provide students with some “general view” of the situation, leaving complex doctrinal issues outside the educational process.

Nevertheless, environmental law is a new branch of law, and there is still no “single opinion” of all science schools on a range of complex issues, from the scope of environmental law to legal forms of climate protection. This is why “keeping balance” between complex doctrinal issues, and the preservation of a simple and plain style of presenting information is one of the striking features of this work.