Confirmation Of Causality In Tort Of Environmental Pollution

Environmental tort disputes generally have the following problems: whether there is pollution behavior,whether there is damage result,whether there is causality,whether the infringement is constituted,whether the liability is assumed and how to assume the liability when multiple persons constitute the infringement.It can be said that solving the problem of causality identification is the fundamental to solve the above problems,is also the most important.We can know that the common purpose of legislation and justice is to truly solve the disputes between the two parties and repair the damaged ecological environment.In order to balance the burden of proof of both parties,the law stipulates that there is no causal relationship between the infringement to prove the pollution behavior and the damage result,and applies the principle of inversion of the burden of proof,while the judicial interpretation also stipulates that the infringed shall bear the preliminary burden of proof in the lawsuit.At present,the mainstream of the theory of causality in tort liability is equivalent causality theory,which pays more attention to the relationship between the act and the result.However,due to the complexity of environmental pollution,this theory is not applicable to the infringement dispute of environmental pollution.If we want to solve the problem of causality identification,we must start from the principle of inversion of burden of proof.The principle of inversion of the burden of proof is a special proof method chosen by the legislation to reduce the difficulty in identifying the causal relationship after weighing the ability of both parties to produce evidence and the possibility of environmental pollution.The application premise of the principle of inversion of burden of proof is that the plaintiff first completed the corresponding burden of proof,including proving the existence of pollution behavior of the defendant,the damage caused by pollution and the correlation between the damage and the pollution behavior,and then the defendant proved that there is no causal relationship between the behavior and the damage results.The implementation of the principle of inversion of burden of proof in practice has experienced the initial less application to the present widespread application,so that more victims have been compensated.Analysis of related cases can be found in the trial,the judge to apply the principle of the inversion of the burden of proof is not too much controversy,but because of the law the provisions of the plaintiff’s burden of proof is relatively fuzzy,court because the plaintiff the extent of the preliminary proof responsibility,scope,and according to the case and regional factors such as different generating different verdict.Whether the principle of inversion of burden of proof makes the infringer bear too much burden of proof and how to better balance the abilities of both parties and improve the efficiency of determination of causality have also become the focus of academic debate.When the academic circles put forward suggestions to improve the domestic legal provisions,they constantly analyze and demonstrate whether the theory of causality presumption can be applied to China.The theory of causality presumption introduced by the academic circle includes many theories,such as the theory of indirect disproof and the theory of presumption of fact,etc.These theories rely on the probability and empirical theory to prove the existence of causality.In order to better solve and deal with the environmental pollution infringement disputes,we can optimize the provision of the inversion of burden of proof from the legal provisions,such as clarifying the plaintiff’s burden of proof,reducing the differences in practice.Or according to the type of pollution to stipulate different ways of causal relationship identification,appropriate introduction of causal relationship presumption theory.At the same time,prior investigation can be carried out to improve the trial efficiency of the court,and it can also enhance the professionalism of judges to solve the problem of causality identification with special environmental knowledge.The above methods can effectively promote the accuracy and efficiency of the identification of causality,reduce the wrongful conviction caused by the wrong determination of causality,and promote the match between legislation and justice.Solve the theoretical errors and application errors in the causality identification of environmental pollution tort cases in China,increase the judicial credibility,make the law the best backing for citizens,and maintain the peace of the ecological environment.