Study On The Plaintiff Qualification Of Environmental Protection NGO In Environmental Public Interest Litigation

So far, whether the Environmental Protection NGO is a proper subject on public interestlitigation are not confirm in the Civil Procedure Law or other laws and judicialinterpretations. The new Civil Procedure Law adding an item of “commonweal litigation”which did not clear what is the “relevant organization”. And in practice there is no unifiedand certain means concerning whether the Environmental Protection NGO can be regard asthe plaintiff of environmental public litigation. Actually, the number of non-governmentalenvironmental organizations on the rise in recent years, with the improvement of theCitizen’s legal awareness, there has been an increasing number of Environmental ProtectionNGO involved in environmental public interest litigation and even some made victory. Intheory, there are two opinions in favor of and against to the subject qualification forEnvironmental Protection NGO, Proponents use litigation trust theory, theory ofenvironmental rights and principle of public participation to support their view which theEnvironmental Protection NGO is the proper subject. But the oppositions believe thatindividual citizen or national authorities is the suitable subject. The public interest litigationin foreign, most nationally recognized legitimate plaintiffs qualification of socialorganizations. United States and India is the common law which have given subjectqualification to the Environmental Protection NGO by case law. Germany and Japan is theCivil law which have given subject qualification to the Environmental Protection NGO bylegislation. The successful experience of these foreign in giving subject qualificationEnvironmental Protection NGO provided a favorable reference value to our country. In fact,subject qualification of Environmental Protection NGO has given the necessity andfeasibility. Furthermore the Environmental Protection NGO has many advantages thatindividual and other organs can not match, such as commonweal, professional and nonprofitetc. Focus on protecting the rights of environmental organizations, and giving them the rightto sue on Environmental Public Interest Litigation is an important means to achieve therights of every individual citizen Also unified and combined personal value and socialvalue.Besides preface and epilogue, this article is divided into three parts altogether. The first part generalizes the current situation of the Environmental Protection NGO’splaintiff qualification in environmental public litigation.The content mainly includes therelevant legislative regulations, the Environmental Protection NGO’s judicial practice inenvironmental public litigation, China’s theory dispute against the Environmental ProtectionNGO‘s environmental public litigation plaintiff qualification.Legislative mandates mainly refers to the civil procedure law and other laws and theprovisions of the judicial interpretation; China’s Environmental Protection NGO putforward the public interest litigation in judicial practice, here mainly through listing cases.The second part expounds the comparative analysis of the Environmental Protection NGO’senvironment public litigation plaintiff qualification.Discusses the relevant provisions and practice of Anglo-American law system andcontinental law countries civil toward public litigation plaintiff qualification of theEnvironmental Protection NGO, comparing the similarities and differences of two lawsystems, and summarize its significance to our country.The third part expounds the theory basis of environmental NGO’s environment publiclitigation plaintiff qualification, including the public trust theory, litigation trust theory, theoptimal theory, civil rights protection theory. Finally it has analyzed the necessity andfeasibility of environmental NGO’s environment public litigation.