Liability of a trustee for environmental offences: Problematic issues and specific features of legal nature

Abstract

The relevance of this subject lies in the fact that an effective enforcement mechanism in the context of compliance with environmental legislation is a lever for preventing environmental offences in general. Considering the lack of a wide range of studies on the environmental liability of a trustee, the scientific and practical need to analyse the relevant issues was identified. The study employed a system of research methods, namely: comparative legal method, method of critical analysis, method of interpretation of legal provisions, method of abstraction, logical and legal method, method of legal modelling, and dogmatic method. The purpose of this study was to provide a comprehensive general theoretical analysis and study of the legal nature and specific features of liability for environmental offences of a trustee and to formulate scientific, theoretical, and practical provisions for the regulation of the relevant legal relations. The study analysed the specifics of the trustee’s environmental liability in the context of security trust as a fiduciary institution, as well as in the case of concluding a property management agreement known as a trust in the countries of the Anglo-Saxon legal system. The study offered a vision of the concept of environmental liability of a trustee through the lens of two models of this institution prescribed by current legislation. The study examined the category of complicity in the context of guilt in committing an environmental offence by both the trustee and the property management company. The study presented a critical analysis of the legislative technique of presenting the regulatory provisions of the Land Code of Ukraine on regulation of the institute of trust ownership of a land plot. As a result of this study, proposals were formulated for improving the current legislation in the context of the trustee’s liability for environmental offences, as well as for the development of a separate chapter of the Land Code of Ukraine dedicated to the legal regulation of the institution of trust ownership of a land plot. The study focused on the theory of trust ownership on a global scale and based on the analysis of the initial provisions, determined its fundamental doctrinal significance for building a mechanism of environmental responsibility of trustees in each individual state. The practical value of this study lies in the fact that its findings can be applied in improving the legal regulation of this area of legal relations