Study On Civil Action Related To Coal Mine Worked-out Section Disputes And Related Issues

The mining of coal has caused tremendous damage to the ecological environment of coal mine worked-out section. From our current legal system and relevant judicial practice, under the management of government’s monorail system, there are many deficiencies in the relief towards the worked-out section’s ecological environment in our country, and it makes extremely difficult for residents’ rights protection. This paper takes the case of “coal mining tort dispute in Nanping Town in Nanchuan District of Chongqing City”for example, discuss the typical controversial issues in civil tort disputes related to coal mine worked-out section, such as the subject of litigation, litigation range, the burden of proof to the case, and take a interpretation to the deep theory behind. based on the relevant judicial practice drawing on the realization of relief for residents’ rights in mining section by way of environmental public interest litigation, and prefect concrete environmental public interest litigation procedures.Specifically, this paper is divided into three parts:The first chapter is the focus of the merits briefing and argument. First of all, takes a briefly introduction of the case mentioned above, include the basic facts and the court’s referee. Secondly, leads to the three controversy questions involved in this case, namely the proper party issue, the conditions issue for the court acceptance and hearing in such cases, the allocation problem for the burden of proof in civil action related to coal mine worked-out section disputes.The second chapter is the analysis of the focal point question. In view of the above three focal point question, this part will conduct an in-depth interpretation in turn. First of all, on the proper party problem in civil action related to coal mine worked-out section disputes: because in the civil tort disputes related to coal mine worked-out section, it is unequal in economic strength and litigation status between miners and residents, it’s better to adopt the prosecutor plaintiff mode, and the victim group should elect representatives as the plaintiff. However, the determination for defendant should according to the specific distinction: in civil action related to environmental tort, the owners of the mine or coal mining enterprises should be the defendant; in the administrative proceedings related to environmental tort, the defendant is relevant administrative organs. Secondly, the conditions issue for the court acceptance and hearing in such cases: in accordance with the provisions of civil procedure law and relevant judicial explanation about the conditions of prosecution, the case which the paper discuss should belong to the scope of accepting cases. Thirdly, on the distribution of burden of proof in civil action related to coal mine worked-out section disputes: if the plaintiff is the public or environmental organizations, the defendant will burden of proof for the fact that whether the ecological environment damage is concrete existence or not, whether there is a causal relationship between damage behavior and the harm. While Procuratorate is to as a plaintiff, it should follow the principle of inversion of onus probandi.The third chapter is the relief of infringement disputes related to coal mine worked-out section: the introduce and improvement for the public interest litigation of coal mine worked-out section. In the traditional relief ways to protect coal mine worked-out section’s residents’ rights and interests, There are some problems, such as, the private remedy is fatigue, and the public power remedy just exists in few parts. It is absolutely necessary and correct to use of environmental public interest litigation to broaden mining residents’ right protection, it is not only a supplement to the traditional relief way, but also can prevent improper exploitation of behavior; it needs to perfect specific environmental public interest litigation procedures form the four aspects: the subject’s establish, the definition of case range, the bear of litigation fee, the allocation of litigation interests; environmental public interest litigation system is also inseparable from the rules of sound environmental public interest litigation, perfect environmental litigation procedures security system and strong support of the new “Environmental Protection Law”.