Research On China’s Environmental Litigation Institution

Environmental pollution problems are a subject that must be faced during humandevelopment. In early, deal with this problem only rely on the authorities’ power, then peoplerealized a better way can ease environmental problems efficiently, that is needs the power ofpublic participation, Environmental Litigation established during this Brain storm. China’sEnvironmental Litigation in legislation is almost blank, but in judicial practice, many areasare for bold innovation, and have made some achievements. But how to construct China’sEnvironmental Litigation Institution, the construction way is in where, to what direction is abetter choice, this paper will try to explore.This paper mainly through the value analysis, comparative research and empiricalanalysis for research. It is divided into five parts. The first part is a brief overview of theEnvironmental Litigation, which introduces the connotation of Environmental Litigation,features and the purpose of legislation. This paper argues that environmental litigationbelongs to the public interest lawsuit. Meanwhile, because Environmental Litigation havesignificant differences with Civil Litigation, Administrative Litigation, Criminal Litigation inlawsuit claim, legal liability, litigation subject qualification, so it should have a independentlegal status.The second part introduces the theoretical basis of Environmental Litigation. Not onlyfrom the substantive aspect—Environment Right, but also from the procedural aspect—theRight of Environmental Litigation.The third part introduces foreign Environment Litigation and compares theirEnvironment Litigation Institution, including selecting the United States, India as arepresentative of the common law countries, Germany and Japan as the representative of thecontinental law system countries, and make a comparative study of the four countries’Environment Litigation Institution. Through comparative study, we can see that in theirEnvironmental Litigation Institution in which all pay attention to protect the right ofenvironmental public participation, and in the procedure also took a tilt of the security procedures to the plaintiff, but some states’ Environment Litigation Institution are also facinglack of substantive rights foundation and the inefficiency of lawsuit problems and so on.The fourth part introduces the present situation of our country Environment LitigationLegislation and judicial practice. In China, the environmental litigation law terms are no morethan the declaration type "soft law" for advocacy, no detailed specific provisions and securityterms. In judicial practice, some places court are beginning to explore professional judgmentmodel—environmental protection court, but is facing the dilemma of small amount oflitigation accepting.The fifth part is the main body part of this paper, including the working mechanism ofEnvironment Litigation and the aspect of promoting path. On the working mechanism ofEnvironmental Litigation, should have fundamental guiding principles, such as secureEnvironment Right and the Right of Environmental Litigation, adhere to the principle of therule of the program and aim to protect the environment. This paper argues that we can trialEnvironmental Litigation procedure in the judicial relief program of Environmental ImpactAssessment public participation right. That is can open a breakthrough to environmentallitigation, as theory study and judicial practice become more maturity, and then formulate aunified environmental litigation procedure. We can accord to the resources endowment andthe occurrence probability of environmental disputes, establish the Environmental ProtectionCourt, and through the specialized training to develop environmental litigation professionaljudgment efficiently.