AccScience Publishing / AJWEP / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/AJWEP026100058
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Interpretation of environmental protection in legal acts

Yevhen Leheza1†* ,  Maksym Korniienko2† ,  Maksym Maksimentsev3 ,  Valeriia Tuliantseva4 ,  Volodymyr Ihnatenko5
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1 Research Laboratory on Current Problems of Jurisprudence and Psychology, Scientific and Research Institute, Dnipro Humanitarian University, Dnipro, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine
2 Odesa State University of Internal Affairs, Odesa, Odesa Oblast, Ukraine
3 Department of Criminal Law and Process, Educational and Scientific Institute of Law, State Tax University, Irpin, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine
4 Department of Civil, Commercial and Environmental Law, Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dnipro University of Technology, Dnipro, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine
5 Department of Civil Law Disciplines, Donetsk State University of Internal Affairs, Kropyvnytskyi, Kirovohrad Oblast, Ukraine
†These authors contributed equally to this work.
AJWEP, 026100058 https://doi.org/10.36922/AJWEP026100058
Received: 4 March 2026 | Revised: 26 March 2026 | Accepted: 1 April 2026 | Published online: 8 May 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Environmental regulation in Ukraine is currently undergoing a significant transformation, resulting in increased complexity in interpreting environmental norms across scholarly analysis and practical application. The article presents a comprehensive theoretical and legal study of the challenges in interpreting environmental regulations in the context of the transformation of Ukrainian environmental legislation and its harmonization with European Union (EU) law. It is substantiated that interpretative activity in this area is of increased complexity due to the interdisciplinary nature of environmental regulation, the prevalence of evaluative concepts, and the framework character of many legal provisions and principles (including sustainable development, prevention, the “polluter pays” principle, and the priority of environmental protection). The methodological basis of the study comprised general scientific and special legal methods of cognition. In particular, the formal legal method was used to analyze the content of legal acts in environmental protection, while the systemic and structural method was used to determine the relationship between environmental norms. The main methods of interpreting environmental regulations—grammatical, systemic, teleological, and historical—were analyzed, and their specific application in law-enforcement activities of public authorities and courts was determined. Particular attention was paid to the role of judicial practice in forming a unity of approaches to understanding and applying environmental law, and to the influence of international treaties and EU law on national interpretative practice. Effective interpretation of environmental legislation should be based on a combination of formal-legal and purposive approaches, with a primary focus on ensuring environmental human rights and environmental safety. Proposals were formulated to improve the methodology for interpreting environmental legislation, particularly by systematizing legislation, unifying terminology, and generalizing judicial practice.

Keywords
Interpretation of law
Legal acts
Environmental law
Environmental protection
Environmental principles
Judicial practice
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution, Electronic ISSN: 1875-8568 Print ISSN: 0972-9860, Published by AccScience Publishing
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