Zbornik Radova Pravnog Fakulteta u Nišu (Jan 2019)
Directions in the development of environmental law
Abstract
A relationship of a human being towards nature and its surroundings created by human labour has become a subject of separate legal regulation and separate legal studies only in the past few decades. Previously, this topic was investigated only sporadically and fragmentarily, within the traditional branches of law. The concept of integral legal protection started being conceived in the 1970s. It opened up a way towards a new, integrative and synthetic branch of law, which has changed its name and content over past few decades. In recent times, this new branch has been most commonly called Environmental law. It, basically, encompasses two groups of questions: those pertaining to the rights and duties which a human being may have in relation to the protected goods in his environment, and those pertaining to the legal protection of these assets. This article briefly discusses the prehistory of Environmental law, directions of its development over the past half a century, its features at the current level of development, as well as the projections of its future development in the near and a more distant future. Comparative studies reveal that court practice has had a key role in the emergence of this new branch of law, not only those in the Anglo-American legal system but also those in the European-continental law. Through their practice, the courts have modified some existing legal institutes and concurrently created some new institutes, aimed at the protection of human environment. Legislative authorities have been less inventive and insufficiently efficient in that respect. Statutory regulation is underdeveloped, frequently lagging behind social changes. The contemporary legal science encounters similar problems, particularly in terms of numerous terminological, conceptional and substantive contraditions and inconsistencies on the legal nature and functions of environmental law. Obviously, there is a stressed need for harmonizing legal terminology, both at the national and the international level. Moreover, the terminology used by legal professionals has to be attuned with the terminology used by other professions. This is especially important given the fact that the future will be marked by the development of the so-called advanced (interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary) studies which should enable bringing together of knowledge of different scientific fields and more efficient reaction in the field of environmental protection and sustainable development. Legal doctrine and legal practice cannot be developed in isolation, independently from other branches of science. It is essential to determine their positions within wider contexts established for the purpose of (re)integrating the existing fragmented sciences and enabling joint action in this field. Law should contribute to instituting changes in the societal flows which jeopardize protected goods in the human environment, whereas it concurrently has to undergo a vigorous transformation itself. The article provides an overview of directions in which these changes ensue.
