On Punitive Damages In Environmental Civil Public Interest Litigation

As a special type of damages system,punitive damages have been widely discussed in their application since their birth because they are different from the characteristics of "homogeneous compensation".Today,common law countries have achieved great results in the application of punitive damages system,and have been widely used in various fields.For civil law countries,the discussion of the "public-private law nature" of punitive damages from the outset to its acceptance and application has also gone through a lengthy process.In our country,since 1993,after the first provision of the punitive damages system in the consumer Rights Protection law,the scope of application of the punitive damages system has been gradually expanded.Has been in the "Tort Liability Law","Product quality protection Law","Contract law","tourism law" and other fields have specific provisions.Environmental civil Public Interest litigation is to safeguard the public interest of the environment,by the Procuratorate or environmental protection organizations to request the Court to provide civil relief litigation.Based on the concept of civil relief,the principle of damages applied in environmental civil public interest litigation has always been based on "homogeneous compensation",that is,the principle of complete compensation.The application of this principle leads to the warning and preventive effect of environmental civil public Interest litigation has not been given due play,which has resulted in a series of problems such as the repeated occurrence of malicious infringement of environmental public welfare and the difficulty of environmental repair.The deterrent and punitive characteristics of the punitive damages system can make up for the lack of deterrent power in environmental public interest litigation.However,through the analysis of the relevant adjudication documents and typical cases,it is found that in practice,the application of punitive damages system is unclear,the amount is difficult to determine,and the distribution of compensation is not standardized.In order to solve the above problems,it is necessary to proceed from the feasibility and necessity of applying the punitive damages system in the environmental civil public interest litigation,Identify the constraints that need to be followed in their specific application,optimize the range of its applicability,Determination of the amount of punishment using a combination of the "cost-benefit" analysis method and the strict restriction model.And according to the different subject of prosecution to determine the distribution rules of punitive damages.