The Purpose And Perfect Of Environmental Legislation Under The Idea Of Sustainable Development

By introducing the history of environmental legislation, studying the values of environmental legislation, comparatively analysing the purpose of different nations' environmental legislation, evaluating and discussing the goal of China's environmental legislation and its improvement, the author gives a thoroughgoing analysis, discussion and comment on the formation of environmental legislation and its foundation of values. The author's intent is to demonstrate what is the goal of modern environmental legislation and how to form its purpose scientifically and validly by generalizing and summarizing different values which has great influence on the formation of modern environmental law.The goal of environmental law is to realize the basic value and commission of law by making laws. During the process of series of legislation, the establishment of goal, which embodies the values of environmental legislation, is significant, because the values supports the guiding ideology and the formation of legal principles and institutions.In studying the history of environmental legislation, the author holds the view that environmental legislation of mankind developed from an earlier stage of protection laws of natural resources to a later period of laws of controlling environmental pollution, and then to the days of sustainable environmental laws. Although the development of environmental law depends on, to some extent, the promotion of society, old environmental legislation utilized traditional value ideas, controlled by "doctrine of human interest centre", which regarded human as "king of all living things" and "governor of nature" (objects of rights), but nature and environments human lived as governee ( subjects of human rights and interests). As a result of it, the purpose of traditional environmental legislation was only the protection of human interests, and the environmental law made on the basis of suchkind of value judgement can not meet both the sustainabl^ development idea and modern environmental ethic. So the author believes that human's values on environmental legislation is now developing from "doctrine of human interests centre " to "doctrine of ecological centre " under the promotion of global environmental crisis and study sciences of arts, nature and society, on the basis of needs of modern environmental ethic and value and also under the guide of sustainable development idea.On the basis of comparison and analysis of goal of environmental legislation concerned several modern typical nations, the author draws the conclusion that both the ideas and practice of environmental legislation are now changing from old to new in the world. But in china, the guiding ideology of environmental legislation is still controlled by traditional ethic-a kind of superficial protection, which can not adapt itself to the needs of development of environmental ideology, even deviate from the trend of international environmental legislation. It is necessary to change it. The values of modern environmental legislation in china, guided by sustainable development of "the doctrine of ecological interests centre", is supposed to set up on the basis of environmental ethic. Under the guide of the values, the legislation must establish a goal of environments fairness and right fairness based on premise that for human's healthy interests, the minimum protection of environments is exerted without exclusion of protection of man's rights and interests.