Danilova N.V. The Right to a Favourable Environment: Subjective Right or Legitimate Interest?

Abstract: The subject of the study are the problems of legal regulation and protection of the human right to a favourable environment. The article considers different aspects which allow to define the right to a favourable environment either as a main human right or as an interest protected by the law. In particular, the author refers to the question of whether it is possible to contest the decisions of the authorities that violate the right to a favourable environment. The article considers the position of the right to a favourable environment in the hierarchy of ecological and legal norms. The author points out considerable gaps in the existing environmental legislation, which does not contain a clear description of the content of this right, or any ways to protect it. The study used both general and particular methods of scientific knowledge: dialectical, formal-logical, formal and legal, comparative legal. The analysis of the content of the right to a favourable environment allows to draw the conclusion that in positive law it has a form not of a subjective right, but the one of a legally protected interest. The author draws attention to the necessity to improve the methods of legal protection of this right, as well as to enlist various authorities to participate in this process.

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