Natural Resources And The Environment

Abstract

Abstract Russian law, following the Soviet legal tradition, does not recognize natural resource law as a distinct branch of law or legal science. Land, water, forestry, the subsoil, the atmosphere, flora and fauna, atomic energy, continental shelf, exclusive economic zone, fisheries, and others are the subject of individual federal laws, and so-called ‘ecological law’ has achieved recognition as a branch of legal science and a distinct subject of legal and general education. With the transition to a market economy, environmental legislation has received less attention than during the 1970s and 1980s. Nonetheless, private interests must contend with environmental standards, whether surviving from the Soviet era or newly-introduced. Privatization transactions typically contain an environmental component, a major concern being whether the private owner succeeds to environmental liabilities incurred, and perhaps undiscovered, from the past. Foreign participation in oil and gas exploration and exploitation in remote and ecologically-sensitive areas of the Russian Federation has given rise to environmental litigation in Russian courts and the termination of foreign involvement in large investment projects. The dismantling of the Russian nuclear missiles and naval vessels has posed novel and difficult ecological issues.