This article explores modern approaches to solving environmental problems in the legal order of the states of Europe (Slovenia, Slovakia, Serbia, Croatia, Czech Republic) and Asia (Kazakhstan, Mongolia). The general directions of development of environmental legislation and traditional environmental legal institutions are analyzed. The features of the formation environmental legislation in the considered European states are noted, taking into account the geopolitical conditions of their formation and membership in the European Union. The role of international legal acts and EU law is emphasized.

The study focuses on the analysis of national laws on environmental protection with a brief overview of environmental legislation. The new Slovenian law of 2022 and the new laws on spatial planning and urban planning in the Czech Republic and Slovakia were highlighted in particular. The features of the application of environmental protection instruments in the laws of individual states, in particular, environmental impact assessment (Croatia, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia), environmental monitoring, management and audit (Slovenia) are considered. Approaches to the termination and restriction of property rights in environmental monitoring by the legislators of Slovenia and Croatia are compared. On the example of the legal orders of Serbia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia, economic instruments for stimulating the environmental activities of legal entities and individuals are considered. It was noted that in most environmental laws trading in greenhouse gas emission quotas as an economic instrument. Attention is drawn to the forms of regulation of climate change in foreign environmental legislation. The regulation of the powers of executive authorities and other bodies and organizations in the field of environmental management is noted.

Thus, in the course of a comparative legal study, new legislative acts were considered, the features of the application of environmental protection instruments, the role of economic instruments in shaping the responsible attitude of legal entities and individuals and society as a whole to environmental protection, the importance of contract law in regulating relations between private and public figures in the implementation of the norms of environmental law, that is, the common features and peculiarities of the legal order of individual states of Europe and Asia are revealed. Along with legislation, the article analyzes the positions of Russian scientists.