Environmental Crime Object Research

The survival and development of human is based on the ecological environment,which provides most food and adequate water,as well as the shelter.Environment is the inexhaustible source of power for human being to live,obtaining resources and realizing the development and exploration of human.Therefore,the protection of the environment is an inevitable choice for the sustainable development of society;it is also the inevitable requirement for building a well-off society in an all-round way.However,there are frequent incidents about the environmental pollution and ecological destruction currently.They are serious threats to the safety of the environment.In the phase of extensive development,the soil pollution area continues to expand,and the water pollution is becoming more and more serious because of the destructive development,various types and complex environmental crimes emerge in an endless stream.There have occurred comprehensive,sudden and major environmental crimes frequently,which stimulate the sensitive nerve of human constantly."The premise of gold and silver hills is the beautiful scenery",without ecological environment,we cannot realize the all-round development of society.Therefore,it is an important measure to strengthen the regulation of the criminal law on the acts which damage the environment in order to deal with the increasingly severe environmental situation,the increasingly fragile ecological environment and the danger of less biodiversity.It is imminent to actively promote the construction of the theoretical system of environmental criminal law,and further strengthen the legislation of environmental protection.As the environmental situation is becoming worsening and worsening,there is a rising demand for the punishment of environmental legal acts by criminal law.Undeniably,the criminal law is the most powerful law,which can play an irreplaceable role in environmental protection.However,the criminal law also has obvious negative effects,if used improperly,it will be affected adversely.Therefore,it is necessary to strengthen the research on the basic theory of environmental criminal law.However,in face of the severe environmental situation,most scholars have turned their attention to the study of countermeasures,they do not pay enough attention to the study of basic theory,as a result,the object of environmental crime(legal interest),which is the basic theory of the environmental criminal law,is still colorful in the theory.The lag of the basic theory of environmental criminal law has affected the promotion of environmental criminal legislation.The ethical basis of environmental law is the deep basis for the study of the object of crime.Because of the different view on the ethical basis of environmental law,it is bound to hold different views on the content and scope of environmental crime.On the ethical basis of environmental law,there are many theories of anthropocentrism and ecological centralism.Some scholars put forward some views on the basis of these two-basic ethics.In fact,the extreme anthropocentrism is only concerned about the interests of mankind,which is not conducive to the protection of the environment;the extreme ecological centralism emphasizes ecology too much,weakening the significance of human being in ecology,so it does not accord with reality.On the basis of fully realizing the coexistence of human interests and environmental interests,this paper puts forward that we should adhere to the principle of common-progress environmental centrism,so as to achieve the goal of environmental friendly and social development.The common-progress environmental centrism advocates that the interests and needs of people should be rationally grasped and weighed in the form of the system,and opposite the absolution of people's interests and needs.This environmental ethics doesn't emphasize on the environment as the center too much to limit the social development,and considers that people should not damage the environment because of the need of social development,taking the regulation system of environmental protection as a link,so as to achieve the "common progress" of environment and society.It is in line with the reality and should be regarded as the ethical basis of the object of environmental crime.According to the theory of traditional crime constitution,the criminal object is the essential element of the crime constitution,and it is the primary condition.At present,the theory of criminal object is still criticized in China.On the object of environmental crime,scholars have put forward a variety of theories such as the social relations theory,public safety theory,environmental protection system,environmental rights theory,interest of environmental law,dual objects theory and complex objects theory.To some extent,these theories have shortcomings or defects,which need further study.There is no concept of criminal object in foreign theory of criminal law,and the corresponding concept is the legal interest of criminal law.Compared with the domestic research on the theory of environmental crime,a more in-depth exploration of the environmental crime legislation and the construction of legislative system have been carried out in foreign countries.The Anglo-American laws are obvious utilitarian,which emphasize the practical value,so,there is no concept of criminal object and legal interest in theory,and they are expressed in terms of the harmful assumption of criminal policy.The pursuit of utilitarian values in the countries of Anglo American law system is the driving force of the strict liability system in the punishment of environmental crimes.Although the countries of continental law system generally agree that,the legal interests violated by environmental crime are the benefits of the environment protected by criminal law for the survival and development of human beings.But the emphasis on the protection of environmental law is different,which is mainly divided into the protection of individual legitimate rights and interests and the protection of national legal interest.The countries of continental law system advocate that the environmental crime should be linked with the consequences of environmental damage,in order to achieve the adaptation of the crime and punishment.It is not difficult to find that all countries attach great importance to the protection of ecological environment,the concept of environmental legal interests protection has been deeply rooted in the people's heart.The specific performance is that the complex characteristics of legal interest lead to the continuous convergence of environmental legislation in many countries;to a certain extent,it also affects the legislative system of environmental criminal law.The concept of environmental right is an important concept in the field of environment law and environmental criminal law in recent years.The emergence of the theory of environmental rights has brought a new direction and new theoretical support for the development of environmental law.With the deepening of the understanding of environmental rights,and the promotion of environmental rights theory,the theory of environmental rights is more and more recognized by people.Starting from the common progress environmental centrism,the object of environmental crime should be the right of environment.As the object of environmental crime,the environmental right has not only the legal basis,but also the ethical basis,as well as the basic consensus of foreign criminal law.With the reasonable consideration of the environmental problems,the common progress environmental centrism thinks that when the environmental interests are fully protected,human beings can gain more benefits in the environment and it will contribute to the development of human beings.The theory of environmental rights fully reflects the importance of environmental interests in the perspective of common progress environmental centralism,and there is a strong guiding significance in the current contradiction between human and environment.In the identification of the object of environmental crime,the common progress environmental centrism has the characteristics of environmental priority,dynamic balance and common development.So,it has positive significance to solve the problem of environmental crime.The environmental issues are related to many aspects such as the "conflict of interest","intergenerational equity","social system" and "international trade" and so on.It covers many problems from the social economy,politic and social system,law and human rights.Therefore,the environmental problem is a social problem that goes beyond the system and runs through the history of mankind.Based on the ethics of common progress environmental centralism,the identification of the object of environmental crime should fully reflect environmental interests,maintain environmental safety,adhere to the guiding ideology that,the environmental interests and the interests of human should be in harmony,environmental benefits and human interests should be integrated,so as to solve all kinds of problems in the governance of environmental crime.The object of environmental crime under the common progress environmental centralism emphasizes that the object of environmental crime is environmental rights and interests with environmental balance as the fundamental attribute and the environmental rights enjoyed by citizens.By comparing with the foreign object of environmental crime,there are some problems in the identification of the object of environmental crime and the construction of governance system in China.The main problems are as follows:the lower level of categories crime,the narrow scope of the protection factors,the relatively conservative legislative concept and so on.The definition standard of the environmental criminal object should start with the identification of the object of environmental crime.On the one hand,we should put forward the value pursuit on the identification of environmental crime object.The definition standard of the environmental criminal object should consider a variety of social demands,and take the sustainable development of mankind.into account Based on these considerations,the definition of environmental criminal object should be the unity of four:value standard,legal standard,ecological standard,and the social standard.In addition,according to the relationship between the general and the special,the whole and the part,the general object of environmental crime is the common object of all crimes,that is to say,what the criminal law protects is the whole social relationship in China;The same kind of object is the environmental right which is protected by the criminal law.As for the direct object of environmental crime,there are 12 crimes stipulated in the current criminal law,each of them protects a specific object directly.It needs to further clarify the structure of environmental rights to take the environmental rights as the object of environmental crime,the environmental right refers to "the population of natural or man-made natural factors that affect the survival and development of mankind".The contents of environmental rights include the right to use the environment,the right to know about the environment,the participation of environmental affairs,the right to claim for environmental violations,etc.Environmental rights are different from ordinary civil rights,some environmental rights are difficult to seek relief through litigation;environmental rights and the survival rights,development rights are also different.However,we must realize that there is no absolute boundary between rights.The mainstream view is that the content of environmental rights is to prevent the quality of the environment necessary for the health of the human body should not be affected by the illegal acts.However,we should realize that the theory of environmental rights is developed with the development of the times,and the connotation of environmental rights has a newmeaning in the new era.In addition to the traditional environmental rights,the right of human existence,the right to enjoy the environment,and the right of environmental development are also the content of environmental rights.The subject of environmental rights is a controversial issue.Some scholars believe that the subject of environmental rights includes individuals,units,countries and natural bodies.However,some people think that the natural body does not have the right to environment.This paper argues that the subject of environmental rights includes state,legal person,unincorporated organization,natural person;the objects of environmental rights include natural environmental factors and man-made environmental factors,and also include the unity of environmental systems composed of various environmental factors;environmental rights should follow the unity of rights and obligations,and should respect the principle of moderate priority of environmental interests;environmental rights should transcend national boundaries,it is the rights of human beings.In addition,scholars generally agree that the subject of environmental rights includes not only the contemporary people,but also the future generations.It should be noted that,however,due to the difficulties of the relief after the infringement of environmental rights,citizens tend to form civil organizations,and exercise environmental rights by such organizations on behalf of them.To study the object of environmental crime,the environmental right is regarded as the specific content of the environmental criminal object.First of all,in the current environmental criminal law,there are administrative attributes of the crimes,the prerequisite needs to be the violation of environmental regulations.But with the deepening and deepening awareness of the social harmfulness of environmental pollution behavior,the administrative attribute of environmental crime should be weakened.Secondly,we should improve the protection of criminal law on environmental rights.The traditional model of legislation which is based on the results,doesn't pay attention to the characteristics that the harmful consequences of environmental pollution is huge,and there is delay in the occurrence of harm.In order to protect the ecological environment better,the environmental criminal law needs to introduce the governance concept of crime preposition,and stipulate part of the environmental crime with huge potential harm as the dangerous crimes or acts crimes,in order to achieve the protection of environmental right in advance.Again,guiding by the common progress environmental centrism,we should conduct a comprehensive review of the current environmental criminal law,make appropriate adjustments in the scope of environmental criminal law,and intensify the crackdown on the acts of environmental pollution,so as to improve the regulation system of environmental crime.Finally,we should perfect the criminal procedure system which is matching with the regulation of environmental crime,and form the model of criminal procedure with the environment right as the center.In short,we should take the extension of environmental criminal object as the starting point and the foothold,update the concept of environmental criminal law,and improve the environmental criminal legislation.