Identification and Assessment Criteria for Objects of Accumulated Environmental Damage

The elimination of environmental damage accumulated as a result of past economic activities is one of the factors ensuring the state’s human right to a favorable environment, provided for by the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The paper deals with the issues of identifying and assessing such harm. An analysis of the criteria for assessing past environmental damage, provided for by the current legislation, is carried out. The harm caused to the natural environment by objects of accumulated harm is wider in the social sense of the word than in the legal one. Ultimately, its most negative consequence is causing harm to health and life of both each citizen and the whole society as a whole. The criteria for assessing objects of accumulated environmental damage, provided for by the current legislation, make it impossible to assess the real impact of such objects on the state of the environment and the economic efficiency of their liquidation. The lack of mechanisms for a comprehensive assessment of the impact of objects of accumulated harm on the state of the environment hinders the ability to fully resolve the issue of compensation for environmental damage caused to human life and health and, as a result, ensuring the constitutional human right to a favorable environment.