The dissertation is devoted to a comprehensive study of the legal regulation of the whistleblower institution in the field of environmental safety in the context of the development of international, European and national law. The scientific work carries out a comprehensive doctrinal analysis of the formation and evolution of the whistleblower institution, its conceptual principles, functions and significance for ensuring environmental safety, transparency of public administration and protection of the public interest. The historical development of the whistleblower institution from antiquity to the present day is revealed, the conceptual and theoretical definition of the concepts of “whistleblower” and “exposure” is substantiated, and the legal distinction between the categories of “informant”, “whistleblower” and “witness” is made. It is proved that whistleblower in the field of environmental safety performs not only a control but also a preventive function, acting as a manifestation of the legal consciousness of civil society and contributing to the prevention of environmental damage, environmental protection, public health and ensuring sustainable development. International legal and European standards for the protection of whistleblowers are studied. It has been traced that Directive (EU) 2019/1937, which defines the material and personal sphere of protection, channels of notification and guarantees against reprisals, is of central importance in the formation of the European model. The provisions of Directive (EU) 2024/1203 on the protection of the environment through criminal law are also analyzed, which expands the role of reporting on environmental offences in the mechanism for ensuring environmental safety and unifies approaches to criminalizing the most dangerous environmental violations within the European Union. The provisions of Directive (EU) 2016/943, which regulates the relationship between the protection of commercial and confidential information and reporting on violations of public importance, determining the limits of permissible disclosure of such information and the conditions for exempting whistleblowers from liability, are separately examined. The connection of the whistleblowing institution with ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) standards and the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) that define the legal basis for the processing of personal data in the procedures for submitting and considering whistleblower reports was identified. The implementation of Directive (EU) 2019/1937 in the EU Member States, in particular Austria, France and Hungary, was analyzed. Differences in approaches to the organization of reporting channels, the scope of protection guarantees and institutional autonomy of authorized bodies were identified, which indicates the heterogeneity of the implementation of European standards. Special attention is paid to NATO's approaches to forming a culture of integrity and accountability, as well as to the models of legal regulation of NATO member states - the United States of America and the United Kingdom, which are guidelines for the development of the whistleblowing institution and have influenced the formation of European standards. It has been established that in the United States of America, the whistleblower protection system is fragmented and based on a set of special regulatory legal acts that regulate individual spheres of public relations (in particular, environmental, financial, and civil service), which provides a differentiated, but at the same time extensive mechanism of legal protection for whistleblowers. In contrast, in the United Kingdom, the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA) plays a key role, which introduced a holistic model of protection for persons disclosing information in the public interest, defining uniform standards of protection against repression, the procedure for making protected disclosures, and liability for their violation. A comparative legal analysis of the legislation of Ukraine and the acquis of the European Union in the field of whistleblower protection was carried out, which made it possible to assess the degree of compliance of national legislation with the requirements of Directive (EU) 2019/1937 and to formulate proposals for its further adaptation. It was found that the Ukrainian model is gradually approaching the European approach, but is characterized by a limited scope of application of guarantees, mainly within the framework of anti-corruption regulation, and the presence of terminological and systemic differences.
