Research On The System Of Public Participation In Environmental Impact Assessment

Entering the environmental risk society, public participation in environmental protection attracts more and more attention. As environmental impact assessment is a key part of environmental risk regulation, the public participation in it should be more appreciated. It is environmental rights theory, democratic theory and governance theory that provides a theoretical basis for the public participation in environmental impact assessment. The system of public participation in environmental impact assessment is to realize the value of environmental justice. It has a positive effect on improving the democratic, scientific nature and acceptability of decision-making, on decision-making process supervision and coordination conflicts of interest, on raising public awareness of environment and rights.Base on analysis and discussion of the legislative process of public participation in environmental impact assessment and the related issues of Beijing environmental impact assessment case of "West-on-six" transmission line project, the Old Summer Palace events, and events in the Xiamen PX project, the essay points out that there are some defects in our public participation system in environmental impact assessment. Our provisions on the subject of public participation are too vague. The scope of our public participation object is too narrow. The stage of participation is late. The public can not participate in reasonable enough manners. There is not clear legal effect of public participation in our law. In addition, lack of adequate environmental information and absence of judicial guarantee are also included. Then, the essay discusses the public participation system in environmental impact assessment in USA, Japan and Taiwan of china, focusing on the subject, object, stage and manners of public participation. Base on comparing with our system, the essay summarizes the experience in legislation and practice from these countries and regions.Finally, in connection with the shortcomings of our public participation system in environmental impact assessment, the essay, based on the reality of our country and learning from advanced experience, puts forward some proposals about perfecting our public participation system in environmental impact assessment, emphasizing on the procedure, the environmental information disclosure and judicial guarantee of public participation in environmental impact assessment.