Environmental Damage Relief Study

Relief for environmental damages includes two aspects: legal relief and actual relief.Relief for environmental damages is based on the environmental rights and the fact of environmental damages. The environmental rights mainly refer to the rights of human beings to live in a healthy, comfortable environment. The environmental rights of citizens are the origin of the government's power to protect the environment and the public trust is the intermediary between the environmental rights of citizens and the government's power to protect the environment. The environment rights include the environmental rights of a nation, a natural person, an institutional entity and a society. It is unnecessary to single out the environmental rights for human beings for emphasis. Damage facts of environment pollution can be classified into the following categories according to different kinds of rights infringement: damage to property, human body, mental health and miscellaneous damages.Equal importance should be attached to the relief for private interests as well as public interests. The relationship between environmental entity relief and procedural relief is the same with that of procedure and entity laws. The priority is the relief for public interests, but the relief for private interests is a necessary supplementary, otherwise it would be difficult to implement the relief for public interests. The emphasis is how to balance and coordinate between the relief for public interests and private interests.The cause and effect relationship of environmental damages can be determined by the actual circumstances. The epidemiological theory of cause and effect relationship can be adopted in cases of collective damages; otherwise some other cause-effect relationships may be taken into consideration in cases of non-collective damages. The indirect counter-evidence theory can be applied to prove the cause-effect relationship (reason deduction).In China, no-fault liability principle is adopted in the determination of environmental rights infringements. It is in line with the international trend and common practices on environmental rights infringements.The mergers of several companies should bear the liabilities of environmental damages from the predecessors. The companies that are split from the original one should shoulder the liabilities of environmental damages from the original company according to the split agreement. The wholly transferred company should shift the liabilities of environmental damages according to the transfer agreement. Changes of business forms, such as leasing and contracting, may also entail transfer of such civil liabilities between the lesser and lessees or the owners and contractors according to agreements or legal procedures. The parent company shall bear the environmental liabilities of its subsidiaries with the extent of its financial extension.The emergencies of environmental damages should include: preventions, preparations, precautions and disposals for the emergencies; situations and emergency rights; restoration and reconstruction of environment.In order to realize the principle that polluters pay the compensation, the author of this essay believes that systems of environmental liability insurance and environmental fund should be established in China. It is necessary to establish environmental fund system as well as environmental liability insurance system in order to protect the legal interests of the victims on the basis of environmental liability insurance system, or on the basis of environmental fund system even when it is impossible to find the perpetrator of the environmental damages.