Subject and Methods of Environmental Law, Participants in Environmental Legal Relations

General Provisions

In this section, the subject and methods of environmental law are discussed, as well as the features of environmental legal relations and their participants.

Different scientific approaches to defining the subject of the branch are analyzed, including views on environmental relations as the basis for legal regulation of society's interaction with nature.

Special attention is paid to the characteristics of subjects of environmental legal relations — state authorities, local self-government bodies, physical and legal entities, as well as public organizations.

The methods of legal regulation, their specifics and combination, including imperative, dispositional and special methods such as ecologization and stimulation, are considered.

Subject of Legal Regulation

According to the general theory of law, the criteria for dividing law into separate branches are the subject and method of legal regulation. The subject of legal regulation is a qualitatively homogeneous type of social relations regulated by the corresponding branch of law, their particularity. The method of legal regulation represents a set of techniques and means of regulating social relations, influencing human behavior. If the subject answers the question of which relations are regulated by law, then the method answers the question of how this regulation is carried out¹.

According to S.A. Bogolyubov, the core of social relations regulated by environmental law are the relationships in the area of interaction between society, people, and nature. They undoubtedly have specificity – arise, change, and terminate regarding the protection and rational use of natural resources². A somewhat different approach is taken by M.M. Brinchuk, who holds that the subject of environmental law are social relations regarding nature or the environment³. A.Yu. Vinokurov believes that the subject of environmental law are the regulated by norms of environmental law public relations which arise, change, and cease in the sphere of natural resource use, environmental protection, and ensuring ecological safety⁴. Whereas O.L. Dubovik considers that the subject of environmental law is ecologically significant behavior of people⁵.

Thus, a unified approach to understanding the subject of environmental law has not yet been formed, and this issue remains controversial. However, taking into account the positions presented by scholars, it can be noted that the subject of environmental law, in the most general sense, are environmental legal relations or social relations regulated by the norms of environmental law.

Participants in Environmental Legal Relations

Participants (or subjects) of environmental legal relations include: 1) state authorities (federal state authorities, state authorities of the subjects of the Russian Federation); 2) local self-government bodies (which do not belong to the system of state authorities); 3) physical and legal entities. In addition, in environmental legislation, public and other non-profit organizations engaged in environmental protection activities are often singled out as separate subjects of environmental legal relations⁶. This is explained by special

the value that the specified organizations have in the field of environmental protection (for example, conducting public environmental expertise, carrying out public environmental monitoring). ### Methods of Legal Regulation

The issue of methods of environmental law, as well as other branches, has been developed extremely weakly in Russian doctrine⁷. At the same time, relying on approaches to methodology developed within the general theory of law⁸, the method of environmental law can be considered as a set of techniques and means for regulating public ecological relations. The method of environmental law is imperative-dispositive.

Method Name

Imperative

Dispositive

**Regulatory Features**

regulation of participants' behavior from the standpoint of authority and subordination

regulation of participants' behavior from the standpoint of their equality and autonomy of will

**Area of Application**

predominates in public law sectors

predominates in private law sectors

**Example**

Mandatory

voluntary environmental insurance.

Under the imperative method of legal regulation of social relations, mutual rights and obligations between parties arise not through mutual agreement but based on legal norms issued by the state[^9]. Within the framework of the imperative method, the behavior of participants in legal relations is regulated from the position of authority and subordination. This method is more characteristic of public law sectors. As an example of the imperative method of legal regulation of social ecological relations, one can cite the mandatory conduct of environmental impact assessment when planning economic or other activities Activities which may cause harm to the environment.

Dispositional method provides participants in legal relations with the opportunity to independently determine their behavior in interactions with each other within the framework of the law and is characterized, as a rule, by equality of parties[^10]. Within the dispositional method, the regulation of participants' behavior in legal relations is carried out from the position of their equality and autonomy of will. This method is more characteristic of private branches of law (primarily civil law). An example of a dispositional method of legal regulation of public environmental relations may be voluntary environmental insurance.

The specificity of ecological-legal methodology lies in a special combination of the aforementioned methods with the predominance of the imperative method of legal regulation. The imperative and dispositive methods in certain combinations are inherent to all[^11] branches of law and therefore are considered as general methods of legal regulation of social relations. At the same time, in ecological legal literature, special methods of legal regulation that are peculiar only to environmental law are also distinguished. For example, in the literature, the method of ecologicalization is singled out, which, according to V.V. Petrov, is the leading method of environmental law[^12]. As noted by S.A. Bogolyubov, the method of ecologicalization can be considered as a manifestation of the general ecological approach to all without exclusions apply to events and phenomena of social life, such as the penetration of the global task of environmental protection into all spheres of social relations, both currently regulated by law and those still unregulated to date[^13].

Then M.M. Brinchuk also highlights the method of stimulation, which involves establishing provisions in legislation aimed at encouraging subjects of environmental law (usually natural resource users) to proactively adopt and implement measures for effective compliance with requirements of environmental legislation[^14].

The methods of legal regulation should be distinguished from the methods of environmental law science. Among them, general scientific and specifically socio-scientific methods are identified. In relation to environmental law science, in addition to logical, historical and other general scientific methods, the issue of the influence of natural science methods, as well as specific ecological methods, is correctly raised. Sometimes it is difficult to separate such methods from fundamental concepts and teachings, such as the theory of evolution, noosphere, etc.[^15]

On the Autonomy of Environmental Law

In scientific literature, discussions often arise regarding the independence of environmental law as a branch of law. Interest in this issue is largely due to differing opinions among scholars. For example, O.I. Krassov considers environmental law an independent[^16], M.M. Brinchuk views it as a complex[^17], while O.L. Dubovik regards it as an independent complex branch of law[^18]. At the same time, we believe that the positions presented by scholars are not always considered mutually exclusive.

The autonomy of environmental law as a branch of law is determined by: 1) the unique subject of legal regulation, which are environmental legal relations (or social relations regulated by norms of environmental law); and 2) the unique combination of methods of legal regulation of public environmental relations, the basis of which, along with the imperative-dispositive method, also includes methods of ecologization and stimulation. Meanwhile, the complexity of the branch of environmental law is explained by the fact that, when adopting a broad approach to understanding environmental law[^19], it comprises

Environmental law, natural resources law, and ecological legal norms in other branches of law.

"methods and means of regulating social relations, influencing human behavior" (Theory of the State and Law: textbook for legal higher education institutions / Edited by A.S. Pigolkin. Moscow, 2003). [^9]: Lazarev V.V., Lipen' S.V. Theory of the State and Law: Textbook for Higher Education Institutions. Moscow, 1998. P. 223. [^10]: Lazarev V.V., Lipen' S.V. Theory of the State and Law: Textbook for Higher Education Institutions. Moscow, 1998. P. 222 - 223. [^11]: For example, in scientific literature there are studies devoted to dispositiveness in criminal law (Sumachev A.V. Dispositiveness in Criminal Law (Theoretical and Applied Analysis): Author's Abstract of a Dissertation... Doctor of Juridical Sciences). Yekaterinburg, 2006). [^12]: Petrov V.V. Concept of Environmental Law as a Legal Community of Science and Academic Discipline // Bulletin of Moscow State University. Series 11. Law. 1987. No. 5. P. 342. [^13]: Institutes of Environmental Law / Ed. by S.A. Bogolyubov. Moscow, 2010. P. 38. Environmental Law: Textbook / Ed. by S.A. Bogolyubov. Moscow, 2010. P. 19. [^14]: Brinchuk M.M. Environmental Law: Textbook. Moscow, 2010. P. 61. [^15]: Dubovik O.L. Environmental Law: Textbook. Moscow, 2010. P. 35. [^16]: Krassov O.I. Environmental Law: Textbook. Moscow, 2008. P. 41-42. [^17]: Brinchuk M.M. Environmental Law: Textbook. Moscow, 2010. P. 84. [^18]: Dubovik O.L. Environmental Law: Textbook. Moscow, 2010. P. 12. [^19]: See, for example, Bogolyubov S.A. On the Possibilities of Environmental Law // Russian Journal of Law. 2000. No. 11.