On Economic Public Interest Litigation

With the development of social mass production, public interests are somehow infringed. When that infringement aggravates to certain degrees, law is required for redressal, thus commonweal litigation coming into being. Economic commonweal litigation refers to litigations that aim to prevent and correct illegal acts compromising public interests happened in the economic field. Economic commonweal litigation intends to crack down on illegal economic acts that compromise public interests, therefore, it stands aloof from protecting certain individuals only. Instead, economic commonweal litigation is to protect the whole of public interests by means of punishing economic illegal acts, which will vindicate economic interests of the whole society and that of each individual. China's legal system on public interests protection is still in its developing stage, therefore insufficient legal means are not able to protect public interests. This phenomenon has already aroused concerns in various circles. Under such a background, the establishment of a sound commonweal litigation system is all the more important.This thesis is mainly composed of five parts.â… .This part mainly introduces the concept and characteristics of economic public interest litigation. Economic public interest litigation refers to such litigation implemented to prevent and punish illegal acts happened in the economic field that compromise the public interests. The characteristics are as follows: first, the fundamental aim of economic public interest litigation is to maintain social order, to uphold public law order and protect the public interests; second, the plaintiff main body of economic public interest litigation is quite comprehensive; third, the conditions on which to file an economic public interest lawsuit can be either illegal acts that have already happened and have brought harm to the public interests or acts whose harmful effects are not yet manifest but are potential in coming.