Judicial Protection of Environmental Rights in the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation (On the Example of Arkhangelsk Region)

Abstract

The article deals with the conditions of effective judicial protection of human rights in the context of environmental security in the Arctic. The article analyzes the judicial practice of human rights protection in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation and the classification of court cases in this area. The main approaches used by the courts to protect the right to a favorable environment as a central constitutional environmental right have been defined. It has been established that in cases when the direct infringer of the specified right could not be identified, the court imposed an obligation to eliminate the consequences of the violation to the local authorities. For objective reasons, local authorities cannot simultaneously execute a large number of judicial acts, which negatively affects both the judicial protection of the right to a favorable environment and the guarantee of environmental safety in the Arctic. The study concludes that in order to achieve the objectives of environmental safety in the Arctic, courts should use an approach based on the priority protection of the right to a favorable environment and on the unconditional obligation of public entities to ensure the implementation of this right, as well as a mechanism for mutual responsibility of public entities of different levels for the implementation of court decisions.