Kazak R. Legal Basis of Biodiversity Protection in Ukraine and the European Union in the Latter Half of the XXth Century: Legal History Research.

The thesis is devoted to legal history research, which analyzes and summarizes the main provisions of the legal protection of biodiversity in Ukraine and the European Union in the latter half of the XXth century. Strengthening Ukraine as a social state, accompanied by a consistent reform of many areas, and selected vector of the integration to the European Union, involves the development of concepts and methods of sustainable development and legal biodiversity protection (as an integrated complex of fauna, flora and their habitats). Historical and legal study of this problem is closely associated with the Ukraine's direction towards European integration. Certain aspects of the current problem were highlighted in textbooks and journals, but do not give a holistic understanding of the dynamics of this field. Therefore, the source base and historiography of the problem were determined; the legal definition of "biodiversity" was formulated; the main stages, trends and historical patterns of the legal biodiversity protection were oultined and analysed; protection of the biodiversity basic elements (flora, fauna, habitats) by different concepts (ex-situ, in-situ) was distinguished. There were indicated the syntax violations of the term "biodiversity" in the legislation of Ukraine, as the unsustainability of the term and the overall unsystematic terminology. The periodization of the biodiversity legal protection in Ukraine was proposed due to the adoption of the legal acts: 1) 1949 - 1960; 2) 1960 - 1973; 3) 1973 - 1991; 4) 1991 - 2004; 5) nowadays. The involvement of the considerable legal materials of the EU allowed to conclude that it is fairly advisable to proceed immediately to adoption of the 'environmental programs' of Ukraine, based on historical and current EU practices taking into account regional, territorial and natural features of the state. The main identical principles and vectors in Ukrainian and the EU legislation were determined, as: 1) the principle of planning; 2) complex character; 3) the principle of subsidiarity; 4) the principle of transparency; 5) scientific approach; 6) the principle of ecosystem balance, which can be compared with the modern idea of sustainable development.