On Citizens’ Plaintiff Qualification In The Civil Public Interest Litigation

Economic development is generally accompanied by a series of emerging socialproblems.Recent years have witnessed the outbreak of events that damaged thepublic interest---especially those which harm the environment and violateconsumers’ legitimate rights.Therefore, the long-discussed issue of establishing apublic interest litigation system in the academia has been put on the table.With theimplementation of the new civil procedure law, the question of the main body ofcivil public interest litigation plaintiff qualification has become a hot issue.Thespecific provisions summarize the body of the plaintiff qualifications, but excludethe widely-discussed part of citizens. Whether citizens should be given the plaintiffqualification or not is worthy of further discussion.The establishment of the public interest litigation system breaks through thetraditional system of the parties. With social development, the summarized rules willface challenges.Citizen is the basic unit of society and stay close to the publicinterest. They serve as the advocator and executor in protecting public interest. Theresearch on the given citizens’ the qualification of the civil public interest litigationplaintiff helps to recognize its rationality and necessity.Meanwhile, the research,apart from putting forward feasible and reasonable suggestions and offering goodadvices, gives support to citizens to protect public interest despite the current flawsin the program and system.Based on the position of giving citizens the plaintiff qualification, the paperprovides theoretical and practical support for citizens to protect the public interest.With the logic pattern of presenting, analyzing and solving problems, it alsoconsiders those the problems in procedure construction and system guarantee.Firstly, the paper illustrates the current situation of the civil public interestlitigation system in China. With direct interpretation, it summarizes thecharacteristics of the subjects in the civil procedure law, and generalizes the range ofthe subjects in the specific situation.What’s more, it discusses the reasons for not giving the plaintiff qualification for citizens in a theoretical and practicalperspective.In view of the parties system, the situation of vexatious litigation and thelacks of the existed system, the paper gives an in-depth analysis of the reasons.Then, based on the standpoint of giving citizens the plaintiff qualification, itdiscusses the rationality of giving citizens the qualification.In light of the existinglaws and regulations in China, it seeks theoretical support of the rationality of givingcitizens the qualification.Starting from the reality, it analyses the inhibitory effects ofthe litigation costs and offers support indirectly.By comparing citizens and otherhotly-debated subjects, the paper highlights the advantages of citizens as the plaintiffin civil public interest litigation.Based on the analysis of social values and meaning,it affirms the rationality of the plaintiff qualification.Finally, the paper lends support to the civil public interest litigation activities inprocedure construction and system guarantee.In procedure construction, the paper,based on the references the litigation trust theory, gives norms to the civil publicinterest litigation prosecuted by citizens.With the foreign reference of reviewingbefore litigation, it puts forward the system which is suitable for China.Combinedwith the real cases of civil public interest litigation, it discusses the types of casesand the jurisdictions of the litigation prosecuted by citizens.In the perspective ofjudicial fairness and transparency, the paper advises applying the announcement ofthe prosecute and the judgment in civil public interest litigation.In the security of thesystem, it mainly touches on litigation costs, focusing on both the litigation costssystem and public welfare fund system. After analyzing traditional litigation costssystem, it comes up with several improvements.Since the simple improvement oflitigation cost system cannot solve the problem fundamentally, the paper comes upwith a hypothesis suitable to civil public interest litigation for China with foreignreferences. It improves the hypothesis regarding the source and usage of the publicfund in order to come up with new solutions to the litigation cost system.The experience, summarized after years of practicing by the foreign countries,is very valuable for the improvement of China’s civil public interest litigationsystem.The paper, on the basis of reference, pays more attention to analysis thereality of China and the combination of theory with practice.With the related judicial interpretation and the improvement of the civil public interest litigation system inChina, giving citizen the plaintiff qualification will play a big role. In both the fieldof the judicial practice and the scope of effectively protecting of the public interest,citizen participation, undoubtedly, plays an important part.