Research On Civil Public Interest Litigation Incidental To Environmental Crimes

Environmental criminal incidental civil public interest litigation is a new type of public interest litigation with Chinese characteristics,which has the characteristics of two procedural rules of civil public interest litigation and criminal incidental civil litigation,but it is not simply the superposition of these two litigation concepts.In2018,the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate issued《the Legal Interpretation on the Application of Public Interest Litigation Cases Initiated by Procuratorates》,which for the first time stipulated that procuratorates can initiate environmental criminal incidental civil public interest lawsuits,which is the beginning of legislation for a new type of litigation model with Chinese characteristics.This type of litigation model is in line with the legal basis of China’s procedures,which can promote the development of environmental judicial specialization,simplify litigation procedures,improve litigation efficiency,and reduce contradictions and conflicts in adjudication.Therefore,since 2018,this type of litigation,whether in judicial practice or academic research,has begun to show an explosive growth trend.However,there are still many problems in judicial practice related to environmental criminal incidental civil public interest litigation,which are mainly reflected in the following aspects: First,because criminal litigation and civil litigation have developed for a long time and have their own procedural rules,but there are no special procedural rules for civil public interest litigation attached to environmental crimes;second,due to the single source of law,it is difficult to connect the criminal and civil parts of cases involving the intersection of the two,affecting the efficiency of litigation and the uniformity of adjudication;Third,the professionalism of the current environmental resources trial team is still lacking,and it is impossible to take into account the particularity of criminal litigation,environmental litigation and civil public interest litigation on the basis of procedural justice.Therefore,through the research and analysis of relevant domestic judgments and the learning from the excellent experience at home and abroad,the improvement measures for environmental criminal incidental civil public interest litigation can be mainly explored from the following five aspects: First of all,the adjudication rules for civil public interest litigation attached to environmental crimes should be improved from the legislative level,the title of the subject of the litigation should be standardized,and the application of the pre-litigation announcement procedure should be improved;the second is to reasonably connect the criminal and civil parts,such as the connection between the application of evidence and the connection between criminal and civil liability;The third is to further strengthen the professionalism of the environmental resources adjudication team and promote the implementation of environmental judicial specialization,and the training and talent reserve of environmental expertise need to not only be concentrated in the adjudication team,but also extended to the clerk level;The fourth is to improve the appraisal system,after all,the appraisal of environmental damage is different from the ordinary judicial appraisal,and in more cases it is related to the basis or evidence support of the victim to file a lawsuit;finally,it is to promote enforcement by weighing the criminal and civil liability of the perpetrator and changing the alternative way of bearing responsibility,so as to maximize the advantages of civil public interest litigation attached to environmental crime.