The Improvement Of Civil Public Interest Litigation System In China

The public interest litigation originated in ancient Roman times has its profound historical accumulation. With the economic and social development, no matter the civil law system countries like Germany, France, Austria, Italy and so on or the common law system countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, they all establish the public welfare lawsuit system in the social transitional period with the increasing conflict of interest. As our country is now at the critical moment, the judicial reform and institutional change have been the top priorities. With the diversity of stakeholders, the infringement of public interests and the absence of the relief system, the establishment of the civil public welfare lawsuit is the legal safeguard in China's economic and social development. However, the single legal provision under the provisions of legislation is unable to meet the needs of the system invention. The lack of basic procedures in civil public welfare lawsuit will result in shortage of legal system when it comes to the public welfare lawsuit in the judicial practice, which is obviously contrary to the basic principles of procedural justice and judicial justice. Therefore, this paper tries to use the theory and method of the law, fully integrates the external experience into local situations, and constructs the basic procedure of civil public welfare lawsuit in China.This paper, based on the basic problem of the construction of civil public interest action, has launched the analytic logic and research approach as the follows. The civil public welfare lawsuit has its profound theoretical origin. The uncertain legal concept of“public interest”causes obscure to the document scope of the public welfare lawsuit. In civil action, the theory of qualified litigant limits the expansion of the plaintiff qualification of the civil public interest litigation. Hence, sufficient theoretical research is the foundation of the procedure of the civil public welfare lawsuit. With the civil public welfare lawsuit originated from foreign countries, the mature application system outsideChina will be a beneficial reference and blueprint to our country. This paper will analyze the public interest litigation model outside the country by using the method of typologically analysis, divide the public interest litigations in different countries and regions into four different patterns, that is, class action, group action, governmental proceedings and citizen suit, explore the supporting systems and procedures of each pattern which represents different countries, and find out the enlightenment to our country.Meanwhile, it will focus on the legislative status quo and judicial status quo of the civil public welfare lawsuit at the present stage in China as the starting point, comb specific provisions about the civil public welfare lawsuit, and clarify the public interest litigation cases with typical significance before the creation of the civil public interest litigation. In addition, this paper will have a comprehensive analysis of the deficiency and causes of the civil public welfare lawsuit at an institutional and practical level in our country, and make a solid foundation of analyzing it in a systematic way. In the end, it will construct the basic application system of the civil public welfare lawsuit in the round from three aspects--the scope of accepting cases, the procedural model and the rules of supporting procedures. The specific standards of the scope of accepting cases will be set up; the procedural models of different public interest litigation cases will be increased with the fully understanding of the existing procedural models. And complementary law about civil public welfare lawsuit will be established from the four specific aspects--litigation costs, mediation and negotiation, the burden of producing evidence and damages.