ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES FOR IMPLEMENTING THE RIGHT TO ACCESS ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION

Abstract

The article examines administrative procedures as a tool for implementing the right of an individual to access environmental information and as a component of the mechanism for guaranteeing environmental rights in the public administration sphere. It is determined that the normative basis for the procedural implementation of information rights in modern conditions is the Law of Ukraine of February 17, 2022 «On Administrative Procedure», which institutionalizes procedural guarantees for the participation of private individuals in administrative proceedings, raises the standards of motivation of administrative decisions and strengthens the possibilities of their subordinate appeal. It is emphasized that administrative procedures for access to public information are detailed by special information legislation, primarily the Law of Ukraine «On Access to Public Information» and the Law of Ukraine «On Protection of Personal Data». The work systematizes doctrinal approaches to the interpretation of administrative procedure in a narrow and broad sense, and also reveals the relationship between the categories of «administrative procedure» and «administrative  proceedings» through the prism of the «whole-part» approach, which dominates modern administrative and legal science. An interim conclusion is proposed regarding the understanding of administrative procedure as a competency-based and functionally ordered sequence of administrative actions of an administrative body, the result of which is the adoption, amendment, execution or termination of an administrative act in order to ensure human rights and freedoms and the realization of public interest in connection with private interests. The threeelement structure of public-administrative legal relations in the field of access to information on the state of use of natural resources (object, subject composition, content) is substantiated, while the object is disclosed taking into account the approaches of the Aarhus Convention and national environmental legislation. The legal features of environmental information, its role as a socially significant resource and the «final product» of environmental monitoring are outlined. The conclusion is made about the need to strengthen constitutional guarantees of access to environmental information and unify the terminological apparatus of legislation to ensure uniform application of law