To the question of recognizing the ecosystem approach as a quintessential principle of environmental law

On the grounds of the comprehensive analysis of the views of scientists, the article explores the principle of the ecosystem approach in environmental law. It is substantiated that the modern environmental legal doctrine has not yet developed a clear and unambiguous understanding of the essence of this principle and its place among other principles of environmental law, because scientists, considering this principle an independent principle, simultaneously recognize it as a sign of rational use of natural resources, identify it with the complex and sustainable use of natural resources or generally see it in the vast majority of principles of environmental law. Given the novelty, extreme intricacy and unconventionality of the principle of the ecosystem approach, it is proposed to consider it as a quintessential principle of environmental law, which, found on the objective conditions of nature’s existence, denoted by the interdependence and interconditionality of all natural processes and phenomena, “permeates” all principles of environmental law and at the same time serves as their backbone, the essence. The article concludes by emphasizing the need to rethink environmental law and its principles on the basis of the ecosystem approach