The environment as an object of criminal law protection: Problems of definition in national and international legislation

The relevance of this work lies in the need for society and the state to recognise the reality of the threat to the environment, which is reflected in the areas of state environmental policy, the main principles of which are to ensure environmental safety in Ukraine, to improve its level in the exclusion zone, to ensure environmental balance and to ensure accountability for violations of environmental legislation. The aim of the article was to conduct a systematic analysis of environmental protection issues in light of the provisions of national and international criminal law doctrine, to identify its inconsistencies and contradictions, to provide scientifically sound recommendations, and to develop proposals for improving its application and eliminating the identified contradictions. The methodological basis of the study was a system of general and special methods, which includes systemic-structural, logical-dogmatic, formal-legal, and terminological methods. The shortcomings of criminal law protection of the environment have been identified and ways to overcome them have been proposed, namely: mechanisms for environmental protection at the national and international levels have been identified, problematic issues and inconsistencies that may arise at the legislative level during the formulation or improvement of the relevant criminal law prohibition have been outlined, norms that could lead to legal conflicts have been identified, and the need to strengthen the imperative nature of legislative norms in order to ensure guarantees of the right to a safe environment has been proven. The expediency of strengthening the link between the right to a safe environment and other human rights guaranteed by the Constitution of Ukraine was analysed. Conclusions were formulated in the field of improving legislation on liability for criminal offences against the environment, focusing on the need to take into account the implementation of guarantees of the right to a safe environment as an element not only of environmental but also of national security of the state, and specific directions for improving the current criminal legislation of Ukraine are proposed. Taking into account the provisions of international acts aimed at strengthening the effectiveness of criminal law protection of the environment, the expediency of using the principle of clarity in the formulation of legal terminology in legislative practice has been proven. The practical value of the work lies in the fact that the results of scientific research will contribute to the complete and correct qualification of the analysed acts by practitioners and compliance with the principle of justice in the implementation of criminal liability