The article is devoted to the analysis of the legal support of the Ukrainian land reform from the point of view of its ecological component and realization of the purposes of sustainable development. The ecological aspect of land reform in our state is represented by separate legislative steps of land rehabilitation. In particular, the organizational and legal bases of land melioration have been improved, including the maintenance of field protective forest belts, the legal bases of land division by purpose and territorial planning, etc. The Law on the Circulation of Agricultural Land is aimed at overcoming the moratorium on the alienation of agricultural land. One of its goals is to create conditions for the rational use of land and soil. And this is a prerequisite for their preservation, restoration and improvement, but requires further legal regulation. The paper uses positive foreign experience in land reforms, as well as international and foreign experience in the legal regulation of rational use and protection of land and soil. It is concluded that at the present stage of land reform, the state is trying to restore the efficient use of Ukrainian lands with minimal expenditure of state resources by creating legal, organizational and economic prerequisites, when landowners, land users and local communities, by virtue of their environmental and social legal awareness, legal culture and responsibilities, will be able to restore Ukraine's land potential and achieve sustainable development goals.
Background. The article reviews the speeches of the participants of the All-Ukrainian scientific and practical conference, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birthday of Doctor of Law, Professor Vasyl Luk'yanovych Muntyan, on the topic "Legal problems of rational nature use, nature protection and a safe environment in Ukraine." The event was organized and held jointly by the Department of Land and Agrarian Law and the Department of Environmental Law of the Educational and Scientific Law School of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, October 21, 2022. The purpose of the article is analysis of scientific heritage of Professor Vasyl Luk'yanovych Muntyan, to highlight scientific-theoretical and legal approaches to the further development of environmental, land and agrarian legal research in the context of national environmental as well as land and agrarian policy, taking into account the proposals made by the participants of the conference from the standpoint of current legislation as far as the participation of our state in international and European integration processes is considered. Methods. The methodological basis of the research was the general scientific dialectical method of learning social phenomena in their interrelationship and development, as well as scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, interpretation of legal norms, formal and legal, historical, comparative and legal, prognostic methods etc. Results. The participants of the conference paid attention to the current problems of the development of agrarian, land and environmental law in the context of overcoming the consequences of large-scale russian aggression on the territory of Ukraine and the transition to peaceful development in the future. Proposals were given for improvement of environmental, land, agrarian and natural resources legislation and law enforcement practice, as well as for the development of environmental, land and agrarian legal science in Ukraine through the prism of generational inheritance and scientific heritage of Prof. V. L. Muntyan. In the scientist's research, the concept of rational nature management is embedded as a fundamental principle of environmental law, science and state management. The idea of legal provision of rational nature use meets modern requirements for reforming ecological and legal reality, harmonizing relations between man and nature on the basis of sustainable development and economical use of natural resources, development of Ukraine as a European, legal, social and ecological state, implementation of the constitutional principles of the Ukrainian people's property on land. More than 60 years ago, Prof. V. L. Muntyan actualized the need to solve the problems of wind and water erosion of soils, the negative impact of deforestation on the condition of agricultural lands and careless management; he pointed out the need to adopt the Law on Soil Protection. Conclusions. The need to eliminate fragmentation in further studies of problems of the methodology of development of environmental, land and agrarian law in order to form a system of guarantees of the effectiveness of the law, to determine ways of improving the legislation in the sources of national environmental, land and agrarian policy has been determined. The study and generalization of law enforcement practice will make it possible to evaluate the positive and negative results of the introduction of the principles of sustainable development, the elimination of corruption in the process of land reform, reforms in mining, forestry, water, agriculture, industry and other sectors of economy, ensuring environmental safety, observing and protecting rights human, prevention of negative climate changes. During the martial law and in the reconstruction period – after overcoming the Russian military aggression against our country – the entire legal system should be aimed at building Ukraine as a European, legal, social and ecological state.