Research On Environmental Civil Public Interest Litigation Initiated By Social Organizations

For the past few years,the ecological environment in China is deteriorating.Our environment is threatened by the global warming,high-speed industrialization,urbanization,and the destruction of human activities.Along with the environment protection idea that green mountains and rivers are Jinshan and Yinshan proposed by Xi Jinping,people's awareness of environment protection are enhanced throughout the country.With environmental pollution and destruction happen frequently,the theory and practice on environmental civil public interest litigation is continuously developing.Especially after 2012,with the introduction of article 55 in new "Civil Procedure Law",which rules that any organs and relevant organizations prescribed by law may prosecute those who pollute the environment and infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of many consumers in a people's court.The legal system of environmental civil public interest litigation prosecuted by social organizations are establishing.Social organizations,as plaintiff to file environmental civil public interest litigation was recognized.In 2015,the newly revised article 58 in the"Environmental Protection Law",which rules that social organizations,that have registered in the civil affairs departments of the people's governments and are specialized in environmental protection public welfare activities for more than five consecutive years without illegal records may initiate environmental public welfare litigation.After that "Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Environmental Civil Public Welfare Lawsuits"(hereinafter abbreviated as "Explanation")described in detail provisions on the qualifications of social organizations as plaintiffs.Hereafter environmental civil public interest litigation was recognized fully.It can be said that there are no legislative obstacles for them to initiate environmental civil public interest litigation.However,environmental civil public interest litigation initiated by social organizations does not develop as fluently as imaged.This is incompatible with the environment situation in China.After clarifying the related concepts of social organizations' participation in environmental civil public interest litigation,this paper finds out the problems existing in social organizations' environmental public interest litigation by combining the current legislative situation and judicial cases in recent years.Too strict legal restrictions on the qualifications of the plaintiffs of social organizations,other problems including unclear burden of proof,huge financial pressure,too broad provisions for mediation and settlement,and difficulties in determining compensation costs,all above cause this difficulty.Then this paper solved these problems one by one.Most of above-mentioned contents are covered in scholars' works and related academic papers in recent years,which however did not consider latest research on the actual problems encountered in the latest judicial cases.This paper tries to propose new solutions based on the latest judicial practice.