Problems and Prospects of Codifying Environmental Legislation in the Russian Federation

This article addresses one of the most pressing and debated topics in the field of environmental law: the issue of codifying contemporary environmental legislation and the need to develop and adopt an Environmental Code of the Russian Federation. To ensure a comprehensive and thorough analysis, the article examines the current environmental legislation, its structure, and the system of sources within environmental law. The author particularly emphasizes that the large number of legislative acts across various levels significantly complicates both the implementation of environmental norms and legal enforcement practices. One of the key factors contributing to these challenges is identified as the absence of a unified codified legal act – namely, the Environmental Code of the Russian Federation. The article reviews research by leading experts and scholars in the fields of environmental protection and natural resource management, with a focus on the codification of environmental law. While there is general agreement on the need to develop a single codified legal act, discussions continue regarding the structure of the future Environmental Code and how to address the vast body of existing normative acts in environmental and natural resource legislation. Regional legislation in the field of environmental protection and resource use is also examined, with particular attention given to the practices of certain regions of the Russian Federation (including the Republics of Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Sakha (Yakutia), and the city of St. Petersburg) in adopting regional environmental codes. The article concludes that these regional codes tend to be declarative in nature and largely replicate the Federal Law of January 10, 2002, No. 7-FZ “On Environmental Protection”. Furthermore, it notes a lack of attention from regional lawmakers to natural, climatic, and other regional specificities during the drafting process. Despite these shortcomings, the emergence of regional environmental codes can be seen as a step toward the codification of environmental and natural resource norms at the regional level – representing incremental progress toward developing and adopting a federal Environmental Code for the Russian Federation.