Macro-comparison Of Environmental Law In China And The Netherlands

It is necessary for China to learn from other nation's relatively better environmental law during the development of its own environmental law. For such reason, this thesis compares China's environmental law and the Netherlands' environmental law in order to find out what China's environmental law can borrow from the Netherlands' environmental law, and thus to produce some useful suggestions for the improvement of China's environmental law. Applying both the methods of functional comparison and regulative comparison, the legislative background, legislative system, and general legislation of the two nation's environmental law are compared in this thesis. After the comparison, it is found out in this thesis that, while having different level of economic and scientific development and different political system, both the Netherlands and China are facing many environmental problems, and they both are positively taking many legal measures to control the environmental pollution and degradation. The two nations' environmental legislation systems are similar, and they both made some similar environmental legal regime. However, there are many differences between the two nations' environmental laws. Generally speaking, the Netherlands' environmental law is more detailed and easier to implement, and it gives the public more chances to obtain relevant environmental information and more opportunities to participate in environmental protection. For instance, in the Netherlands, more legal bodies have the standings during environmental administrative litigation or civil litigation. In addition, the Netherlands' environmental law stipulated some advisory systems regarding environmental decision-making, which often involves scientific and technical issues. Based on the result of the comparison, the following suggestions are concluded in this thesis regarding the improvement of China's environmental law: China needs to take actions to protect the environmental during its economic development; China's environmental law shall be more detailed to improve its applicability; the environmental permit system shall be set up and merged with the Environmental Impact Assessment system, thus to better prevent environmental pollution; and more channels shall be available for the public to participate in environmental protection.