Roman Sergeyevich Melnik, Doctor of Law, Professor, Professor of the Higher Law School, Director of the German Law Center M.S. Narikbayev KAZGUU University

It can be said without exaggeration that ecology and environmental policy are at the forefront of not only global attention, but also Kazakhstan's, which is explained by a systematic increase in the "burden" on the environmental resources of all countries as a whole and each country individually. In order to improve and increase the efficiency of regulation of various environmental relations in the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Environmental Code was adopted, which entered into force on July 1, 2021.
This event was truly epochal for Kazakhstan, as the Code incorporated a large number of positive (world-class) practices of building environmental relations in the country. Thus, the following provisions of the Code are of particular interest.

The Environmental Code and its "pros"

Firstly, attention is drawn to Article 2 (Environmental legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan), which contains several fundamental positions. In particular, the decision of the legislator should be welcomed, which prohibits the inclusion of provisions regulating the environmental relations in other laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan, except in cases provided for by this Code. Such a step will help to minimize the "erosion" of environmental legislation, which is accompanied by the "stretching" of environmental standards under special/separate laws. In this part, It should be reminded that Kazakhstan has previously faced similar problems , which led to the formation of multi-vector and not always properly coordinated legislative and subordinate provisions, which, in the end, necessitated the re-codification of environmental legislation. It will probably not be erroneous to say that ecology requires the stability of its legal foundations, since in this sphere, as in no other, the subjects of environmental relations build the trajectory of their activities not even for years, but for decades, and, obviously, they expect the government to remain unchanged in legal regulation. The above-mentioned Article 2 of the Code specifically can provide a high level of legal certainty in this area, and trust in the government.

Secondly, Article 13 of the Code looks progressive, which enshrines the rights of the public in the field of environmental protection. Among the powers granted, special attention is drawn to paragraph 5, part 2 of the said article, which grants the public the right to appeal to the court with a statement challenging the legality of actions (inaction) and decisions of state bodies, local self-government bodies, officials and civil servants on environmental protection issues, including those related to the elimination of environmental damage and suppression of violations of the requirements of the environmental legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan. In other words, the public has the opportunity to file administrative lawsuits in order to protect the rights and interests of other persons, which significantly expands the concept of the Administrative Procedural Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which, as is known, in the vast majority of cases sees only the subject whose direct rights and/or interests have been violated by the administrative body as a plaintiff. These legislative innovations have become an example of the real implementation of the provisions of the Aarhus Convention, ratified by Kazakhstan in 2000 into national legislation.

Thirdly, the approach of the legislator, which linked the Environmental Code and the Administrative Procedural Code, should be recognized as justified, indicating that the procedures for interaction between individuals and administrative bodies (on access to information, participation in discussion of issues related to the environment, etc.) are regulated by the last of these codes. Due to this approach, it is possible to achieve unity of procedural activities, which, of course, will have a positive impact on the level of implementation and protection of the rights of individuals participating in environmental and legal relations.

Of course, the positive aspects of this Code do not limited to the listed aspects. But in this article, I would like to focus on a slightly different aspect, namely ensuring its effective application. It is not enough to adopt a law, it is necessary to adopt a working and an effective regulatory act.

From regulatory control to law enforcement practice

Not much time has passed since the entry into force of the Code, which is not yet allow us to draw objective conclusions about the results of its application. However, at the same time, a somewhat different fact is obvious – in order for the Code to fulfill fully the tasks assigned to it, the government must take care of training specialists who are able to understand, correctly interpret its norms and accurately apply them to regulate specific environmental and legal relations.

Universities and legal training

The main violin in this part, obviously, is assigned to higher educational institutions of a legal profile, as well as those who have a law faculty or institute in their composition.
The analysis of the level of teaching, in this case, environmental law can be initially assessed through the prism of the educational literature that is available to both teachers and students. This is on the one hand. On the other hand, today we need not just textbooks on environmental law, but textbooks that will be conceptually and meaningfully coordinated with the new Environmental Code. The study of the available legal literature on this issue shows that the most "recent" textbook in the Republic of Kazakhstan dates back to 2010 (S. T. Kulteleyev Practicum on environmental law of the Republic of Kazakhstan : textbook. manual / S. T. Kulteleyev Almaty: NURPRESS, 2010). Accordingly, it can be concluded that today Kazakhstan has not created the minimum necessary conditions for the training of lawyers capable of applying the new and promising Environmental Code. I would like to emphasize that in this case we are talking about future lawyers. The same colleagues who are already practicing are obviously in a more advantageous position, since they have some practice and understanding of the issues. But again, for them, new knowledge obviously would do well.
Thus, it is advisable to think about the idea of preparing a new textbook on environmental law of Kazakhstan. At the same time, it should be noted that in the modern conditions of the development of the country and society, we obviously will not be satisfied with a textbook focused on retelling the provisions of the current environmental legislation. Law enforcement practice, enhanced by a large number of positive trends (the introduction of institutions of administrative procedure and administrative justice) requires its own "enrichment" by modern literature, which should be created on new concepts. Let us dwell on this idea in more detail, identifying only the most important aspects.

The Constitution as the basis of environmental law

Any branch of public law, and environmental law is undoubtedly an element of it, should be studied, first of all, through the prism of the relevant constitutional provisions. It is the provisions of the Constitution, which lay down the legal status of objects of nature, the duties of the state and the rights of citizens in this area, that form the axis of environmental law. Therefore, the textbook should demonstrate not only the connection between the Constitution and environmental legislation, but also show examples of the influence of the provisions of the Constitution on formation of environmental legislation; identify ways to check the provisions of environmental law for their consistency with the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan; explain the basics of constitutional-conformal interpretation of certain provisions of environmental legislation.

Focus on international standards

Environmental law has long gone beyond the narrow national framework, having absorbed a huge number of international standards, many of which, as is known, were also the basis of the Environmental Code. It is obvious that not all international regulations and rules have become an integral part of national environmental legislation, but at the same time another fact is obvious – without knowledge of these supranational standards, it will be impossible to coordinate promising national environmental legislation with global legal trends; to ensure law enforcement activities of such a level that it meets the expectations of the country's international partners. Thus, the international component of environmental law should be presented in the textbook in a voluminous chapter.

Consistency with related disciplines

The authors of the textbook on environmental law should remember that a student studying the similarly named discipline learns other branches of law along with it. Therefore, in the textbook it is important to avoid "layering" and unjustified repetitions of material that has already been studied or will still be studied in other disciplines, for example, land or construction law. In this part, it is impossible to ignore the issue of the consistency of environmental and administrative law, the latter of which is improved by the adoption of the Administrative Procedural Code, the provisions of which are applicable in the field of regulation of environmental legal relations. It is necessary to think carefully about how to transfer all modern administrative and legal mechanisms and tools used by the power participants (the government represented by authorized bodies and officials) of environmental and legal relations to the sphere of environmental law

Law enforcement practice - at the forefront

Any textbook on law, including environmental law, should be focused on teaching students law enforcement skills. It is expected that it will be filled with algorithms for analyzing practical situations, which cannot but be accompanied by examples from administrative and judicial practice. If not every one, then the vast majority of the provisions of the Environmental Code should be commented on and explained in terms of how and in what cases one or another of them should be/can be applied.

It is obvious that the presented short review will not be able to replace a full-fledged discussion about the fate and prospects of the development of environmental law in Kazakhstan and the peculiarities of its teaching and study. To discuss the issues raised, it seems appropriate to organize a broad professional discussion of this issue. It seems that university professors, practicing lawyers, and representatives of the public dealing with environmental issues should become its mandatory participants. Only in such a composition, it is possible to create a high-quality intellectual product capable of meeting both the needs of higher legal education and legal practice.