Environmental Law as an Integrated Branch of Law: a Systemic and Structural Analysis

Abstract

This article examines the problem of determining the place of environmental law within the legal system of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the basis of a systemic and structural analysis. The author substantiates the need to distinguish between the primary and secondary structures of law. Within the primary structure, the system-forming factor is the division into public and private law, while the criterion for differentiating branches is the method of legal regulation – imperative for public branches and dispositive for private ones. Within the secondary structure, four spheres of activity are identified – economic, socio-cultural, administrative-political, and environmental – which serve as system-forming factors for complex branches of law. It is demonstrated that the environmental sphere occupies a unique position, as the notions of a sphere of activity and a branch of law coincide within it. Based on an analysis of the Environmental Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan (2021) and relevant doctrinal approaches, the author proposes to consider environmental law as an integrated branch encompassing natural resource law and environmental protection law as sub-branches. At the same time, land, subsoil, water, and forest law are recognized as independent complex branches forming part of the structure of natural resource law. The introduction of the category of an integrated branch makes it possible to resolve theoretical contradictions between the classical three-level structure of law and the actual practice of regulating environmental relations. The proposed concept opens prospects for revising the systematization of other complex legal formations and may be extrapolated to entrepreneurial, information, and other cross-sectoral legal institutions.