On The Status Of Government In Environment Law

The status of the government includes two aspects: one is the necessity of the government ,the other is the limit of the government. Based on this, the dissertation is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the necessity of the government in environment protection. Both the politics and economics pay great importance on the necessity of the government. As for politics ,it takes up this problem in three ways: the nature of human, the idea of God and the class nature. All the three ways discuss the problem in terms of justice. As far as economics is concerned, there are also two ways: the failure of the market and the cost of exchange. Economics takes up the problem in terms of efficiency .When we look on the problem at a more basic level, we can find that the necessity of government lies in the balance between the private interest and the public interest, especially the deviation of private interest from public interest.People hold all kinds of views on the causes of the environment problem for it is complex. Thus it is important to make clear the main cause of it in order to solve the environment problem. The environment problem includes pollution and destruction. Through the analysis of the cause of the two aspects, we draw a conclusion that the essence of the environment problem is the deviation between private interest and public interest. As a result, the government is indispensable in environment protection.The second part discusses the limit of government in the environment protection. Economics, politics and the science of law all pay great attention to this problem. Economics explains this problem in two angles: the theory of public choice and the theory of the failure of government. Politics also explains the problem in two angels :the operational law of the authority and the implementation law of the right. As for the science of law, it discusses the problem in three stages: the ancient times, the modern times and the contemporary age. The three disciplines all hold that the government should be limited.Then how to limit the government in environment protection? It is by the environment law. Environment law belongs to the administrative law in the empire of the law. Therefore the essence of the environment law is to limit the government while protecting the environment. The environment law limit the government through the three principles: the principle of limited authority, the principle of due procedure and the principle of responsible administration.