Study On Expert Witness In Environmental Litigation

With the rapid development of economy,environmental pollution becomes more and more serious.The number of environmental litigation is increasing,and environmental litigation has become the most effective mean to solve environmental disputes.However,environmental pollution and ecological damage generally have the characteristics of latency,chronicity,cumulativity,complexity,delay.So environmental litigation is more professional than other litigation obviously.It often includes highly complex professional knowledge,technology,and a variety of professional studies.It needs support and application of professional knowledge in litigation.At present,our courts in particular relied on the accrediting body in the fact finding of environmental lawsuits.The sentence of the court also mostly relied on appraisal opinions such as causation and damage.However,there is so many problems in China's environmental pollution appraisal,which includes lack of qualifications by many appraisal agencies,repetitive identification,cross-examination system of identification,and certification system of identification,and so on.In addition,the knowledge of judges is limited.They cannot review which includes appraisal means,appraisal methods and scientific knowledge which used when studied.Therefore,we should learn the advanced practices from UK and USA of the expert witness system,and build an environmental litigation expert witness system which conforms to China's national conditions.There is of great significance to change the environmental litigation over-reliance on appraisal opinions and environmental litigation difficulties.This paper includes five parts as following:Chapter one,introduction.This part mainly expounds the research purpose,the research significance,the research ideas and writing methods,and the innovation of this paper.Chapter two,the overview of the expert witness system.A systematic introduction of the expert witness system in the Anglo-American legal system,including the concept and characteristics of the expert witness system,the differentiate and analyse of expert witnesses and the other similar concepts,the historical origins and changes of the expert witness system,and the evaluation of the expert witness system.Chapter three,the reality need and necessity of building expert witness system in Environmental Litigation.Firstly,the investigation of domestic expert witness in environmental litigation,including the status quo of legislation and the present situation.Secondly,the necessity of building expert witness system in Environmental Litigation.Chapter four,the introduction and enlightenment about the case of foreign environmental litigation using expert witnesses.Introducing the case of the 2010 Kobe Town Environmental Lawsuit case in the United Kingdom,and explaining the enlightenment from the environmental litigation case in Kobe Town,UK.Chapter five,the construction of expert witness system in China's environmental litigation.Including clarifying the legal status of expert witness,subject qualification of expert witness,operating procedures of expert witness taking part in the environmental litigation,the scope of objects to expert witness testimony,the proving ability of expert witness testimony,the responsibility of expert witness,and establishing an correct ethic of expert witness.