Study On Public Welfare Trust Fund In Environmental Damages

Damages in environmental civil litigation of public welfare include the cost to stop the infringement,to eliminate the obstruction,to eliminate the danger,to repair ecological environment.It is a huge amount of funds on account of the large-scale features of environmental damages.However,the answers to the questions such as who own the money,to use the money in which way,how to manage this money cannot be found in law yet.The provisions in administrative normative documents which refer to those questions are contradictory and the management modes of damages in judicial practices are different too.There are some problems in both theoretical and institutional level: those managements don’t build on legal basis and the independence of the money cannot be guaranteed.In order to overcome the shortage of the existing practice,a public welfare trust should be established.The advantages of this trust are obvious that it clarifies the legal relationship of the damages management and its unique mechanism ensure the independence and management efficiency of this fund.The construction of this public welfare trust fund could take a page of both domestic and foreign cases.The establishment of this trust fund is different from general ones.It is set up once get registration from government rather than getting approval.Multifarious fund establishment files may not necessary.Furthermore,it is not necessary to consider some important factors that whether the purposes of the trust is the public welfare and whether there is any potential infringement or tax evasion.So during the stage of establishment,this trust can be regarded as a simplified version of public welfare trust.When it comes to operation stage,it is the public welfare trust who engage in the environmental restoration.In this stage,the most appropriate choice of trustee may not be trust company.It is encouraged to advocate other organizations to play the role of trustee,especially environmental protection public welfare organization.Accordingly,relevant policies should make adjustments appropriately.Trust company together with environmental protection public welfare organization playing the role of joint trustee should be encouraged.Revocable trust fund should not be allowed in order to ensure the safety of the trust property.There should be clear definition of trustee’s rights and the supervision system of this trust fund also should be strengthened.