Žilinskienė, Leda

Belarus's first nuclear power plant (NPP) is located in Ostrovets, near the border with Lithuania. The procedure behind the transboundary environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the construction of this NPP required the application of the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context. As the nature of nuclear energy-related activities involves a potentially wide scope of severe impacts, a great deal of public concern has been raised by this issue, not to mention the potential impact on national interest, in view of which the sound and transparent transboundary EIA procedure is of great importance. The implementation of the transboundary EIA has led to a degree of misunderstanding and disagreement between these neighbouring countries, with the issue being escalated to the Espoo Convention's Implementation Committee. The proceedings between Lithuania and Belarus have revealed the peculiarities and limitations of any practical implementation of an EIA.

Renewable energy is a key driver of the sustainable energy transition. To accelerate deployment, the Renewable Energy Directive was amended by Directive (EU) 2023/2413, commonly referred to as ‘RED III’, which raised the Union’s renewable energy target and introduced territorial instruments such as coordinated mapping and renewables acceleration areas. This article examines the legal mechanisms of RED III that have a territorial impact and assesses their interaction with spatial-planning, asking how implementation reshapes the relationship between EU-level regulatory influence and Member State discretion. Utilising doctrinal legal research and concepts from spatial-planning scholarship, the article analyses how RED III operationalises these area-based planning instruments and links them to project authorisation. Lithuania is used as an illustrative implementation example. The findings suggest that RED III does not establish an EU spatial-planning system but strengthens the territorially oriented governance of renewables by connecting plan-level choices to permitting. At the same time, it leaves Member States with substantial discretion over legal form and integration into national planning hierarchies. The article concludes that RED III is a turning point in a specific sense: it makes territorial steering a more explicit and legally structured component of EU renewables governance, without harmonising national spatial planning systems.

The energy trilemma is recognised in doctrine as a means of balancing the different competing objectives of energy law and policy. The importance and weight of renewable energy in the energy trilemma is reinforced by the fact that it is a target and an important instrument in climate, sustainability and energy legislation. Despite its positive aspects, the deployment of renewable energy faces a number of obstacles, including concerns about its negative impact on the security of energy supply. It is important to develop a legal response to the controversies surrounding the deployment of renewable energy. The article aims to analyse and develop a clearer and more systematic approach to the development of renewable energy sources based on the energy trilemma. This aim was achieved using the methods of document analysis, logical-analytical, linguistic, systematic analysis. The article focuses on the analysis of scientific literature in the categories of law, as well as energy and economics, and analyses EU legislation and case law, as well as national court decisions. In the first part, a thorough literature review was carried out to explore and define the concept and objectives of the energy trilemma. The second part of the article examines the features of the relationship between renewable energy and the energy trilemma. As the understanding of the energy trilemma seems to be too general, simplistic and lacking practical applicability, the third part of the article focuses on enhancing the concept of the energy trilemma. Specific examples are used to expose internal contradictions within certain objectives of the energy trilemma, referred as renewable energy dilemmas. In general, these dilemmas have not been linked to the concept of the energy trilemma and have therefore not received sufficient attention in doctrine. The article discusses whether the energy trilemma should be used as a procedural principle of energy law. It also raises the question of whether application of the trilemma should involve the legal principle of energy solidarity.

One of the most important measures in terms of promoting the development of renewable energy is the simplification of permit-issuing procedures for renewable energy projects. A number of recent legal acts in this area have been adopted at the EU level, including Directive 2023/2413, also known as RED III. Amendments contained within this have been criticised for lowering environmental protection and impacting assessment standards. A less frequently discussed but yet equally important aspect is the relationship between national administrative law and EU rules on permitting renewable energy projects. The preparation of this article was prompted by the fact that the simplification of permit procedures for renewable energy projects has a significant impact on the member state administrative systems and governance structures. One of the article’s main objectives is to examine, from the perspective of administrative law, EU and Lithuanian legal frameworks where these relate to procedures for granting permits for renewable energy projects. The research is conducted through an assessment of the general legal regulation of permit issuance in Lithuania, and the task io linking this aspect with innovations which have been introduced by the EU in terms of permit procedures for renewable energy projects. Both the Lithuanian legal system and its doctrine are facing several challenges: it is necessary to systematise and clearly regulate general provisions for permit issuance while, at the same time, in specific sectors such as the issuance of permits for renewable energy projects, new EU permitting provisions are being introduced which have previously been unknown to national law.

Articles 53 and 54 of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania establishes the principles of environmental protection. Initially, these constitutional norms were treated only as a goal of environmental protection, from which the subjective right to a healthy and clean environment does not derive. However, the practice of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania, Lithuanian administrative courts and courts of general competence gradually broadened this approach. The accession of Lithuania to the European Union, the premise of which was the harmonization of national legislation with the legal norms of the European Union, as well as the ratification of the Aarhus Convention led to the fact, that the right to a healthy and clean environment was recognized as a constitutional right. Finally, this right can be defended in courts as a subjective right and as a public interest in environmental protection. The guarantee of the right to access to the courts in environmental matters enables the right to a healthy and clean environment to be protected.

Lietuvos Respublikos Seimui 2022 m. birželio 30 d. priėmus Lietuvos Respublikos žemės įstatymo Nr. I-446 pakeitimo įstatymą Nr. XIV-1311 ir 16 susijusių įstatymų pakeitimus, iš esmės buvo pradėta vykdyti žemės valdymo ir naudojimo reforma, kuria savivaldybėms siekiama suteikti daugiau galių valdant valstybinę žemę. Poreikis pakeisti tam tikrus valstybinės žemės valdymo ir naudojimo santykius formavosi ilgą laiką. Valstybinės žemės valdymo, atskirto nuo savivaldybių funkcijų vykdymo, koncentravimas Nacionalinėje žemės tarnyboje prie Žemės ūkio ministerijos lėmė jų funkcijų dubliavimąsi ir perteklinius institucijų veiksmus, išryškinusius investicijų pritraukimo savivaldybėse, teritorijų plėtros ir kitų savivaldybių funkcijų vykdymo problemas. Straipsnyje analizuojami žemės valdymo ir naudojimo reformos teisiniai aspektai, pateikiamas galimų su jos turiniu ir įgyvendinimo pradžia susijusių probleminių klausimų teisinis vertinimas.

Food waste is a global problem, one that has moved up the public and political agenda in recent years. Food is at the core of the United Nations' (UN) 'Sustainable Development Goals'. Food waste prevention is also highlighted as a priority area in the '2015 Circular Economy Package'. Food waste is an important indicator of sustainability because it embodies the sum of resources being used to produce uneaten food, and food waste disposal has an environmental, economic, and social impact. Directive 2018/851 established amendments to the food waste regulatory regime, including the definition of a food waste category and general provisions, which were related to food waste, providing a strong emphasis on waste prevention and the reporting of data in connection with food waste. New EU food waste rules should be implemented at the national level. Comparative research is needed for identifying any potential implementation problems. Such research will be carried out using case studies of Poland and Lithuania.

Basic human rights are set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Moreover, human rights to the environment were identified with 3rd generation human rights as the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity. These rights may be disturbed through pollution of the environment causing by improper waste management…Therefore, it is important to comply with the various principles of waste management specified in the Directive 2008/98/EC, which provisions were implemented into the legislation of Poland and Lithuania. The purpose of this article is indicate the legal principles of waste management and human rights to the environment for example of these countries. In Poland, waste management should be carried out with the protection of human health and life, in particular, it must not pose a threat to environmental elements and effects on cultural and natural areas. Similarly, there are protected the same resources in Lithuania with paying attention to not exceeding the normative standards. Therefore, principles of environmental law and waste management plays a crucial role in safeguarding human right to environment due to their needs.

Pastaruoju metu žiedinės ekonomikos idėjai socialiniame teisiniame diskurse buvo skiriama vis daugiau dėmesio, ji vis labiau aptarinėjama formuojant viešąją politiką, visuomeniniame gyvenime ir moksle. Europos Sąjungos lygiu įsipareigota siekti žiedinės ekonomikos ir ji paskelbta visuomenės gerovės pagrindu. Vis dėlto šioje srityje tiek teoriniu, tiek praktiniu lygmeniu vis dar egzistuoja daug probleminių aspektų, kurie moksliškai nėra ištirti. Straipsnyje apibendrinama moksliniuose tyrimuose išplėtota žiedinės ekonomikos koncepcija, pateikiama jos įgyvendinimo teisės aktuose analizė ir atskleidžiama žiedinės ekonomikos teorinių postulatų bei aktualaus atliekų tvarkymo teisinio reguliavimo koreliacijos problematika, sprendžiant atliekų tvarkymo klausimus. Perėjimo prie žiedinės ekonomikos teisinis reguliavimas nėra baigtas ir, jeigu siekiama ambicingų žiedinės ekonomikos tikslų įgyvendinimo, jis turėtų būti tobulinamas, atsižvelgiant į intensyvų žiedinės ekonomikos vystymą tiek moksle, tiek ir praktiškai.