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Leheza, et al.

principle of the rule of law, the Constitution has the the recently revised MEPL 2023 brings considerable
highest legal force and is the basis of all legislation. enhancements. These primarily involve strengthening
All laws, including environmental laws, are adopted on the conservation of marine biodiversity, refining the
the basis of the Constitution and in accordance with its mechanisms for preventing and controlling pollution
provisions. from ships, streamlining the surveillance of the marine
In the legal hierarchy, the law is the main source of environment, improving the measures to address land-
environmental legislation. It is a regulatory act adopted originated marine pollution, and instating more stringent
by a higher representative body of state power or legal consequences. The revised MEPL 2023 enhances
directly by the people (referendum). The law establishes China’s strategy for protecting its marine environment
the initial legal norms, holds the highest legal force, by incorporating global best practices within its existing
and is adopted in compliance with a special legislative legal framework. Furthermore, the study identifies
procedure. 1 areas for future improvement, offering insights for
As a source of law with the highest legal force, the policymakers that would be useful and, ideally, should
Constitution of Ukraine contains a set of provisions have already been integrated.
that: (i) highlight the special constitutional function
of environmental protection, (ii) establish the general 2. Materials and methods
legal principle for the priority of environmental
protection, (iii) establish the responsibility of the The methodological basis of the study is a set of general
present generations to future ones, (iv) provide for the scientific and special scientific methods of cognition,
country’s environmental sovereignty, and (v) establish including formal-logical, historical, comparative-legal,
the state’s obligations to protect the sovereignty in both interpretation, structural-functional, and modeling.
internal and external relations. The basic law of the state Using the formal-logical method, the conceptual and
establishes a constitutional environmental legal order. terminological apparatus was analyzed and clarified,
2
The purpose of this study is to analyze the Constitution while the content of individual regulatory legal acts
of Ukraine, international treaties, and international legal and the features of their implementation were studied.
acts as key sources of environmental law that form the The historical method facilitated the study of the
regulatory and legal basis for ensuring environmental development dynamics of sources of environmental
safety, sustainable development, and environmental
protection. law, starting with the law on Nature Protection of the
Human activities, even before the Industrial Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1960), as well
Revolution, have initiated changes in nature. It is now as the main trends in the formation of regulatory legal
essential to strike a balance, ensuring that economic acts in this area of social relations. The comparative-
advancement does not come at the expense of legal method was employed to compare diverse
environmental sustainability. Genuine progress requires domestic regulatory legal acts that regulate interactions
the maintenance of robust environmental standards, between society and nature alongside relevant foreign
as this is fundamental to sustainable development. experience. The interpretation method was applied to
This research offers a comprehensive examination analyze the content of regulatory legal acts and their
of the current status and potential environmental correlation with related branches of law, in particular,
impacts of infrastructure projects under the China– administrative and civil law. 3
Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The expected The application of the structural-functional
consequences of this project are, for the most part, method enabled the systematization of the sources of
already well understood. environmental law according to various characteristics
Since its inception back in 1982, the Marine to determine the role of individual regulatory legal acts
Environmental Protection Law (MEPL) has undergone in the system of sources of environmental law. Using
multiple amendments in 1999, 2013, 2016, and 2017, the modeling method, potential development scenarios
culminating in a comprehensive revision in 2023. for the system of relevant sources were determined.
These successive updates have gradually established a Among these, the most acceptable models were
solid legal foundation. The Constitution underpins this selected. The prospects for systematizing the sources of
system, the MEPL acts as the key regulatory framework, environmental law were assessed through codification,
and specific marine element safeguard regulations while the structure and content of individual draft
propel its operations. Compared to earlier versions, environmental legal acts were also determined.

Volume 22 Issue 3 (2025) 154 doi: 10.36922/AJWEP025160118