Strict Liability In Environmental Crime Of China

With the rapid development of science and technology and the constant improvement of industrialization,the natural resource consumption and environmental pollution in human society are increasing.When people realize the importance of environmental protection,many countries enact the criminal laws to stop the environmental damage and to take good care of the our home we live.Due to the features of chronicity,professionalism,and latency of environmental crimes,so seeking proof of the perpetrator’s subjective fault is difficult.And traditional sin responsibility principle can not help to punish those who pollute the environment and destroy natural resources.Faced with this problem,there is a strict liability system in foreign criminal laws.This new system of strict liability system triggered a heated discussion between the scholars either within or outside the scope of the application.Through a careful study of the debate,we can find all the scholars does not reach a consensus in the strict liability nature and its different connotations,which causes the confusion of strict liability,no-fault liability and absolute responsibility.A relatively strict liability is applied in environmental crime in most countries.And the reversion of proof does not violate the principles of criminal law and its application has theoretical basis.It is necessary for China to build the strict liability system in line with our criminal law based on the theory and practice.This paper consists of three parts.The first part is an overview of strict liability in criminal law.Starting from the Anglo-American origin of strict liability,a comprehensive understanding of the origins and development of strict liability will be stated.Based on a induction of the definition of strict liability in criminal law from different scholars,this paper puts forward the definition of strict liability,and a comparison will be made between strict liability and the Civil Law liability,strict liability and no-fault liability.Then a dispute about the application of strict liability in our current environmental criminal law is introduced.Next the author gives her own humble opinion and states the reason why strict liability can be applied in Environmental Criminal Law in our country.The fourth part explains the application of strict liability in foreign environmentalcriminal law.Through an introduction of the application of strict liability in criminal law in both Anglo-American law system and continental law system by listing common law and civil law,the inspection and analysis will be made to find out the advantages in the application of strict liability abroad.The last part is about the strict liability system design in China’s environmental crime.This paper presents a concrete system design about strict liability in China’s environmental criminal law.Firstly,the paper gives a restrictions to the subject of strict liability and the specific types of crimes.Secondly,the appropriate rights of the perpetrator must be protected in the practice of strict liability in environmental crimes to ensure balance between the justice and efficiency of the environmental criminal law by providing appropriate exemptions.Thirdly,to define the role of strict liability is an imputation system,that is,a supplement of fault liability,which should be elaborated in legal provisions.The author hopes that the enactment and the implement of the environmental criminal law will be helpful for the achievement of coordinated development of environment,economy and society.