Research On The System Of Damages In Environmental Civil Public Interest Litigation

The determination and use of compensation amount directly affect the result of environmental remediation and the effect of system implementation,which is the premise of effectively repairing the damaged environment and realizing sustainable development of the environment.Based on 105 environmental civil public interest litigation cases accepted by Jiangsu Provincial People’s court in 2018,this paper summarizes the general practice of Jiangsu Provincial People’s court in applying for environmental damage compensation.At the same time,this paper also compares the judicial practice of Jiangsu Provincial People’s court with some innovative practices of other local people’s courts,summarizes the problems and shortcomings of the environmental damage compensation system in judicial practice,and puts forward some suggestions for the effective implementation of the environmental damage compensation system.The full text is divided into five parts.The first part analyzes the legal basis of compensation fund.On the one hand,it defines the connotation of related concepts and clarifies the differences between the relevant concepts.On the other hand,it analyzes whether the compensation in nature can be used as a new way of relief and whether it belongs to punitive damages.The second part summarizes the determination of compensation funds.At present,criteria for determining the amount of compensation in Jiangsu Province are almost based on the expert opinions issued by the entrusted professional institutions or experts,and the scope of environmental damage compensation is also very cautious.Most courts held that only environmental restoration costs were included.On the other hand,in China’s current judicial practice,the scope of environmental damage compensation mainly includes environmental restoration costs,service function loss costs,environmental damage costs and transactional costs.The third part summarizes the acquisition,use and supervision of environmental damage compensation.First of all,the environmental damage compensation implemented by Jiangsu courts is almost a one-time payment.This paper compares the installment payment,alternative execution and guarantee methods of prepayment of environmental damage compensation.Secondly,Jiangsu courts mainly bring the management of environmental damage compensation into public power.For example,the government’s financial funds will be included in the accounts set up by the court and the plaintiff’s accounts of public interest litigation,which will be managed by the trustee.At the same time,it compares the way that people’s courts in other regions bring compensation into the operation of environmental public welfare foundation with the way that people’s courts pay compensation to environmental public welfare trust.Finally,Jiangsu province lacks supervision on the use of environmental damage compensation.The fourth part concludes that current environmental damage compensation system lacks the rules of compensation amount evaluation;the compensation implementation mode is single;the management of fund ownership is chaotic;and the use of funds is lack of supervision.At the national legal level,the determination of environmental damage compensation is too general and broad,there is no specific provisions,and there is a lack of legislation on the imputation and use.At the same time,there is no proper way to avoid the implementation risk of environmental damage compensation.The fifth part puts forward some suggestions on the problems existing in the implementation of environmental damage compensation in China.The first is to detailed legislation on the identification of compensation amount;the second is to optimize the implementation of environmental damage compensation;the third is to manage funds through special funds;the fourth is to strengthen the supervision of the use of funds.