Study On The Environmental Liability Of The Terminated Company

Based on China's current legislation, this project will explore what kind of system should be established to protect the environmental victims who can receive adequate compensation in time after the termination of infringers. According to a series of principles and theories like the person who pollutes is responsible, equity and justice, social responsibility of corporation, in order to protect the environmental victim's legal interests after the infringing company was terminated, China should establish a comprehensive system consisting of the system of legal entity to be continue in short time, piercing the veil of the corporation ,liability insurance of environmental tort, liability fund of environmental tort and the system of environmental government compensation.This project includes 4 parts. The first one defines the environmental liability of the infringing company which was terminated. It requires the company to compensate the environmental victims after the cancellation of legal personality when the damage was made because of its industrial activities or other infringements of pollution. These damages are not only the pollution of the nature environment but also the damages to the personal rights, the property rights and environmental rights of the environmental victims. Furthermore, it discusses a series of characteristics such as the complexity of the legal subject, the burden of legal proof is too strict, the complex to achieve environmental liability and the diversity of the methods of bearing environmental liability. Some principles will be discussed in the following part. According to the principle of the person who pollutes is responsible, the company should pay the compulsory environmental insurance or environmental funds because of its environmental tort, even if the legal personality of company has been cancelled in Corporation Law. According to the theory of equity and justice, as the polluters and users of the nature resources, the company should compensate to the environmental victims which are harmed because of the companies'industrial activities and the pursuit of maximize profits of their shareholders. According to the theory of social responsibility of corporation, the company should maximize to achieve environmentally sound production, consider stakeholders, and commit the responsibility of environmental protection. In the third part of the subject, the author will make assessment on the provisions of the infringing company's environmental tort liability in Corporation Law, Bankruptcy Law and Environmental Law. Some suggestions will be provided that it is necessary to establish a strict withdrawal of corporation and the corporate entity extended system. The contents of piercing the veil of the corporation system and the scope of joint and several liability of the main subject should be clarified. At last, after study on the abroad system of environmental liability insurance and environmental liability fund, this project will analyze the status of the environmental liability insurance, the environmental liability fund and the environmental government compensation in China. Furthermore, it will illustrate that the environmental liability insurance system of China need to be improved which should adopt the mode of compulsory environmental liability insurance, claims that combine both the limit compensation of the insurance and the full compensation to the environmental victims and adopt a sound concrete measures of environmental liability insurance. It is important for China to reform the existing environmental liability fund system by the way of charging the environmental taxes and issuing the environmental lottery to expend its sources of funding. In the system of environmental government compensation, another special theoretical basis, namely,"public trustee"theory will be elaborated. More discussions will be made on building an environmental government compensation system which is suitable for the national conditions of China. At the end, this project will provide several specific recommendations on its funding sources and the scope of compensation.