Study On The Protection Of Interests Of Environmental Tort Creditors In Bankruptcy Liquidation

In recent years, the industry of our country has experienced a high-speed development period. Along with the remarkable economic achievements, a growing number of environmental pollution accidents began to emerge, such as fog haze weather, the safety issues of drinking water and heavy metal pollution in soil. According to our current Environmental Protection Law, Company Law and other relevant rules and regulations, companies should take responsibility for the environmental pollution, which was caused by the production process. But a lot of companies cannot pay for the large mount of environmental debt. Besides, the consequences of pollution is often not apparent until many years later, even decades later, and some companies would like to take advantage of legal loopholes to avoid the environmental liabilities. In these cases, the interests of environmental tort creditors are often difficult to be protected and the society has to pay for the cost, while the actual responsibility undertaker "at large". Therefore, there is an urgent need to strengthen protection for environmental creditors’ rights.Combined with the experience of western developed countries, this paper try to find the answers to the following two core issues: one is, how to deal with an environmental claim in bankruptcy liquidation proceedings. Is it necessary to treat it as priority bankruptcy claim? The other is, how a bankruptcy company taking the environmental tort liability after liquidation? Specific suggestions: 1. establish the priority status of environmental tort claims in bankruptcy liquidation proceedings; 2. establish main responsibility reserve system and expand the scope of related responsibility main body after the liquidation; 3. improve the environmental liability insurance system and the environmental liability fund system.