Constitutive Requirements Of Civil Liability On Environmental Tort

Rapid advancements on science and technology substantially improve the quality of life for the society; however, it owes a lot to the increasing environmental problems. Environmental tort cases caused by environmental pollution and ecological damage have occurred from time to time. Compared to the traditional tort, environmental tort has its unique constitutive requirements, which differentiate it from general civil tort. In view of such special situation, the author analyzes and compares its constitutive requirements among the responsibilities and attempts to figure out an effective measure that would further enhance civil liability of environmental tort legislation. This thesis is comprised of five chapters:Part 1. It mainly analyzes the related implications involved in environmental tort, that is, concepts, features and functions within environmental tort and environmental civil infringement are introduced and discussed. Specifically, first of all, the concepts defined by many scholars within environmental tort are analyzed. Then, environmental tort and environmental civil infringement are defined. Furthermore, the characteristics of environmental tort and the functions of civil liability on environmental tort are summarized. Finally, the form of common tort among environmental tort is mainly introduced with details. The clear definitions of the fundamental problems favor a lot of the discussion in the following part.Part 2. It focuses on the analysis of constitutive requirements of civil liability on environmental tort. The thesis clarifies the definition of its constitutive requirements and points out that the doctrine of liability fixation plays a significance role in the composition of tort liability. The judgement of the constitution of liability should be directed by the doctrine of liability fixation. Within the case of environmental tort, the application of principle of liability without fault largely protects environmental rights and interests for the victims.Part 3. It chiefly introduces legislative practices on constitutive requirements of civil liability on environmental tort in developed country. This part analyses the research and advancement in this domain within developed countries, such as, the United States, Germany, Japan, and etc, from the perspective of legislation system, doctrine of liability fixation, presumption of causal relation; compares and summarizes the above content, which lays a favorable foundation for ours.Part 4. It generally states the current situation of the composition of our civil liability on environmental tort, which indicates the weakness on legislation in this area. Based on the cases of Conoco Phillips oil spill accident, Zijin Mining pollution incident and so on, this part discussed the difficulties within our juridical practices caused by the imperfection of the current constitutive requirements of civil liability on environmental tort.Part 5. It mainly analyses the constitution of civil liability on environmental tort in China. This thesis aims at improving the civil liability system on environmental tort, especially for its constitution. This part raises the legislative suggestions from the perspective of legislative conflicts, damaged main body, burden of proof, presumption of causal relation:firstly, illegality should not be premise in terms of the constitution of civil liability on environmental tort, its constitutive requirements include:(1) behaviors on polluting or damaging environment; (2) existence of damaged facts; (3) existence of causal relationship between behaviors on polluting or damaging the environment and damaged facts. It is obvious that the application of principle of liability without fault within natural resources law favors the protection of the natural resources and also benefits for related environmental rights of citizens from the view of juridical practices around the world. However, at the same time, considering not frustrate the dynamics of production activity of enterprise, the limitations on application of principle of liability without fault should be imposed. Secondly, the scope of the damage of environmental tort should be expanded and the subject of mental damages should be clarified. Through the expansion of the scope of the damage, lawful rights and interests of the victims in an inferior position can be protected and the environmental resources can be protected.Thirdly, regulations of the inversion of burden of proof and presumption of causal relation are clarified. Based on the characteristics of environmental tort itself, under many conditions, it is difficult for victims to rigorously testify the causal relationship, which, on one hand, keeps the victim from achieving effective assistance on time; on the other hand, lead to the waste of juridical resources. Until now, it is necessary to take the presumption of causal relationship as the measure to tackle the environment tort, which is a necessity for development of the era and juridical practices. Meanwhile, more attention should be paid on the fact that the type of environmental tort is getting more complicated as the by-product during the period of highly developed civilization, accompanied by the increasing type of tort behavior and more serious harmfulness. Under this circumstance, the application of single method of presumption of causal relation would be bound to cause rigid or misuse, which might not protect the legal right of the victim and might restrain the aim of decreasing tort behaviors. Therefore, varied method of presumption of causal relation should be defined and applied for different types of environmental tort and its complexity. It is beneficial to stabilize and develop the situation through combining multiple methods.