Research On Judicial Expertise In Environmental Torts

The term, Judicial Expertise in Environmental Tort, refers to the activity conducted by legally qualified identification agencies and experts. Entrusted by the courts or parties, the Expertise agencies and experts, in accordance with environmental protection statutes, national, departmental and industrial standards and environmental science knowledge, inspect, identify, judge and render opinions on specialized questions arising from environment tort actions, such as physical index, chemical index and ecological system that are environmentally relatedRecently, the environmental problems, like pollution and ecological damage, that China has been faced, have deteriorated. As a result, actions concerning environmental issues have grown in number. Local courts appealed to such a trend by establishing judicial organs that are specialized in hearing environmental protection cases. However, the victims in environmental torts seldom seek protection by filing a case to the courts. One of the fundamental reasons for the reluctance to file a case is the underdevelopment of China’s judicial expertise in environmental torts. There are not many academic products for reference. In law practice, parties may find it difficult to file the cases, produce the evidences, assess the losses and determine the responsibilities. Hence, this essay attempts, by joint inspection on both continental and common law system and exploration on the mechanism and practice on judicial expertise in environmental torts, to analyze the status quo of and problems existed in the judicial expertise in environmental torts, and based on which, to further present workable solutions and legislative ideas.This essay consists of three parts:the introduction, the main body and the conclusion.The introduction mainly draws forth the problems, and briefly analyzes the legislative, practical and academic progress of judicial expertise in environmental torts.Chapter I.The basic theories of judicial expertise in environmental torts. The author mainly focuses on the analysis of the concepts and features of environmental torts, the concepts, features, categories, principles and evidence characters of judicial expertise and the concepts, features, contexts, levels and researches of judicial expertise in environmental torts.Chapter II.The development and status quo of China’s judicial expertise in environmental torts. The author analyzes the background of judicial expertise in environmental torts, which indicates the paradox between the more frequent outburst of environmental disputes and the rarity of environmental tort cases files. The author analyzes at length the development and status quo of China’s expertise agencies and the current mechanism of judicial expertise in environmental torts.Chapter Ⅲ The perfection of China’s judicial expertise in environmental torts. Based on the former analysis on the status quo of China’s judicial expertise in environmental torts, the author goes on to discuss the existing problems therein. Through survey and literature research, the author gives comments on the practical innovation accomplished by the Chinese courts during the course of hearing and judgement. Considering those existed problems and practical innovation, the author, combining the respected judicial expertise mechanisms and practices in environmental torts of the two legal systems, proposes legislative ideas on legislation, expertise management, expertise performance, expertise responsibility and application of expertise opinions, etc, for the perfection of China’s legal mechanism on action against environmental torts.