Friendly-environmental state as a counterbalance of environmental risks

Abstract

The article explores the notion of friendly-environmental state (ecological state, ‘green’ state) as a new category of modern state studies. At the turn of the millennium, the environmental risks of postindustrial society have significantly intensified the activities of every state, including Ukraine, in shaping and implementing environmental policies. The creation of a new image of the state that may be called ‘friendly-environmental’ is on the scholarly agenda. This concept has recently been used more and more in legal studies, but it has not been properly elaborated by domestic jurisprudence. Mostly scholars consider this type of the state in one dimension: they consider the characteristic ‘ecological state’ as a feature of the constitutional state, emphasize on the ecological function of such state, recognize implementation of environmental policy as the main task of the state in contemporary world, etc.
 The article distinguishes a few features of the friendly-environmental (ecological state), particularly the following: greening of state policy and greening of the society through the assistance of the state; maximizing the effectiveness of environmental policy; activation of ecological function; ensuring environmental safety; guarantee of environmental human rights, meeting of personal and public environmental interests. The following definition is proposed: the friendly-environmental (ecological state) is a state that constantly and systematically implements environmental requirements in all spheres of public policy and areas of social life, implements an effective environmental policy together with civil society institutions, implements the ecological function and ensures environmental security, environmental human rights, the meeting of personal and public environmental interests. It is confirmed that the formation of the friendly-environmental state corresponds exactly to the prevailing tendencies of development of contemporary state-making processes and can counterbalance current ecological risks.