До питання генезису екологічної держави в Україні

The article traces and examines the notion and historical evolution of the environmental state on the national and international scales. The author refers to scholarly writings of researchers from the United States and countries of Europe exploring the historical evolution of the environmental state, as well as research by Ukrainian scholars, who have been interested mostly in separate components of the environmental state, e.g., environmental protection legislation. The work presented is based on the natural-law school of legal theory, based on which the author understands the environmental state as a stage of development in the progress of the state, confronting human-made problems to the natural world. The research applies a logical methodology, analysis, and abstraction being its major tools. The main general scientific method used in this study is the systemic approach, which considers the environmental state as an interconnected system of components, while the historical method serves as a special technique. In the article in question, environmental state is conceptualized as a theoretical and legal notion describing the constitutional form of a nation. It is a structure that politically acknowledges the precedence of the environment in national policy for both current and future generations. It also establishes requisite legal, administrative, and fiscal frameworks required for making, revising, and effectively applying national environmental policies. Moreover, it establishes behavioural norms that correspond to the changing demands of society and are followed by the government and the public. The writer contends that the origin of the environmental state as a concept is traceable to the 1960s and 1970s, during which governments became aware of the necessity to mitigate the adverse effects of human activities and preserve the natural environment for coming generations. The article discusses international legal consolidation of environmental human rights in the 1970s and 1980s as an integral component of the environmental state. Furthermore, it discusses the evolution of the environmental state in Ukraine from the Soviet era to the current period. Through the analysis of state-level policy documents in the period since Ukraine gained independence, the article identifies main developmental pathways of the environmental state within the country context.