A Research On Right Of Environmental Civil Public Interest Action

In the background of the latest-modified Environmental Protection Law of thePeople’s Republic of China and the Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court ofSeveral Issues on the Application of Law in the Trial of Environmental Civil PublicInterest Lawsuits (hereinafter referred to as the Interpretation) coming into effectin succession, this paper studies on the right of environmental civil public interestaction from the perspective of its theoretical basis, subject system design andprocedure system design. And this paper researches on the most fundamental aspectof environmental civil public interest action---right of action, aiming at changing thesituation in which scholars have long probed into proper plaintiff qualification cut offfrom the right of act. The author hopes the study on the new field could make for abetter understanding of the environmental civil public interest lawsuits to protectenvironmental public interests. This paper consists of the following four parts:The first part is the “theoretical analysis of right of environmental civil publicinterest action”. The part introduces the reflection on the right of environmental rightthrough the environmental civil public interest action, and a conclusion is reachedthat “the environmental right is a result of redefining the right system of public lawand private law in the view of environment, and it is the collection of the rights onpublic law and private law relating to the environment, rather than a specific right”.Environmental right, by definition, consists of two rights---environmental privateright and environmental public right. Environmental private right refers to thepersonality right and property right in civil law relating to environment. Andenvironmental public right refers to the right to know and to participate in theadministrative law relating to environment and the right to claim raised with theinfringement of the above rights and the procedural rights in procedural law relatingto environment. Then the development and characteristics of environmental law arediscussed. Compared with the other civil rights, the environmental right has thecharacteristics of naturality, sociality, public welfare and equality. Finally, from the actual perspective, the development history of the environmental civil public interestaction in China from germination to establishment is presented.The second part is the “subject system design to realize the right ofenvironmental civil public interest action”. The subject to exercise the right ofenvironmental civil public interest action is actually the proper plaintiff ofenvironmental civil public interest action. This part analyzes respectively thefeasibility and improperness of the social organizations, procuratorial organs,ordinary citizens and administrative organs as the proper plaintiff combining with thelegislative and judicial practice, and then affirms the proper plaintiff qualification ofsocial organizations. Finally, the problem that the subject of the right ofenvironmental civil public interest action is not coincident with the subject ofinterests is presented, and solutions are preliminarily discussed.The third part is “procedure system design to realize the right of environmentalcivil public interest action”. The procedure system design to realize the right ofenvironmental civil public interest action contains general judicial system design andthe characteristic system design in environmental civil public interest action. Thegeneral judicial system design consists of implement of register booking system,de-administration and de-localization of judiciary. And about the characteristic systemdesign in environmental civil public interest action, this part spreads out from thefollowing two aspects,“the sufficient exercise of the right of environmental civilpublic interest action” and “preventing the abuse of the right of environmental civilpublic interest action”.“The sufficient exercise of the right of environmental civilpublic interest action” is analyzed from guarantee before litigation and supportingindictment system, and “preventing the abuse of the right of environmental civilpublic interest action” is analyzed from preposing procedure of litigation andpunishment mechanism for abusing the rights.The fourth part is the “conclusion”. This part summarizes and reviews therelating conclusions above, the development tendency of diversification of the subjectto exercise the right of environmental civil public interest action is introduced, thepromoting impact that the implement of the new law and interpretation has on thedevelopment of environmental civil public interest action is affirmed, and in the last, the author appeals to exercise the right of environmental civil public interest action byinstituting environmental civil public interest lawsuits to protect environmental publicinterests.