Research On The Right To Investigate And Verify Of Environmental Administrative Public Interest Litigation

Since the pilot work was carried out,the environmental administrative public interest litigation system has achieved good results,providing a new idea and opening up a new situation for the protection of environmental public interest in China.However,as an emerging litigation system,it is still in its infancy.So there are still many problems in the system setting and the exercise of powers,among which the more prominent one is the establishment and exercise of the right to investigate and verify environmental administrative public interest litigation.As a legal supervision power,the right to investigate and verify environmental administrative public interest litigation is justified.It is not only conducive to strengthening the legitimacy of environmental administrative power and balancing legal supervision power with environmental administrative power,but also helping to make full use of cases leads and give play to the leading role of procuratorial organs in environmental administrative public interest litigation.As the basic power for the operation of the environmental administrative public interest litigation system,the right of investigation and verification is of great significance to the achievement of the expected results of this system.Since the pilot work of the environmental administrative public interest litigation system was launched,in order to support the smooth progress of the this system,the Supreme People’s Court,the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and some local people’s congress standing committees have successively improved the relevant provisions on the right to investigate and verify through legislation.However,at present,the exercise of the investigation and verification power of environmental administrative public interest litigation is not very smooth,and the main problems include that the burden of proof and the standard of proof are not clear,making it difficult to exercise the this power;the lack of compulsion causes the procuratorial organs to be helpless when they encounter the situation that the person under investigation does not cooperate;the unclear initiation procedure causes confusion in the initiation of power in judicial practice;and the lack of funds and talent guarantees in the process of exercising power hinders the full exercise of this power.The improvement of the right to investigate and verify environmental administrative public interest litigation shall combine the characteristics of environmental administrative public interest litigation itself,further clarify the allocation of proof responsibilities,and build a proof standard system for sub-nodes.On the one hand,by giving the procuratorial organs mandatory means of investigation and verification,to ensure that the procuratorial organs can still obtain evidence in the case of the person under investigation not cooperating;on the other hand,the compulsory right of investigation and verification is reinforced by pursuing responsibility,prompting the person under investigation to voluntarily cooperate with the investigation and verification work.The procedures for initiating the right of investigation and verification should be further regulated.Accelerate the establishment of special funds for environmental public interest litigation and a national expert database for environmental administrative public interest litigation,providing sufficient funds and talent guarantees for the exercise of the right to investigate and verify of environmental administrative public interest litigation.