Research On Environmental Protection Obligations Of Citizens In The Constitution

In 2018,China amended the constitution.The contents it added including “Scientific Outlook on Development”,“Xi Jinping thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era”,"new development concept","social civilization,ecological civilization","harmonious and beautiful socialist modernization country" and "ecological civilization construction".We feel that our country values ecological construction and environmental protection and this attention has provided us with a principled guide to study the constitutional obligation of environmental protection.The amendment of the sixth paragraph of article 89 of the constitution makes it more clear that the state,as the main body of obligation,should implement the ecological civilization construction and exercise the functions and powers of leadership and management.The construction of ecological civilization not only requires the state to exercise its functions and responsibilities,but also requires citizens to cooperate with national laws and policies and fulfill their environmental protection obligations.It plays a very necessary role in realizing the goals of the Party and the state in the new era and protecting citizens' environmental rights.Citizen's basic obligation is an important content in constitutional science.The study of citizen's basic obligation in constitution not only helps to guarantee the existence and development of national power,but also helps to guarantee the exercise of citizen's basic rights.As a product of the times,environmental rights arise in the context of a large number of public nuisances in this century.With the thinking of human beings about the environment,the rise of environmental rights meets the individual needs of citizens.Environmental rights is inevitable to enter the constitution.Environmental protection obligations corresponding to environmental rights,although few words are said at this stage,it cannot be ignored.As a basic obligation,environmental protection obligations has constitution's confirmation will also become an inevitable trend of the rule of law environment.On the basis of defining the obligation of environmental protection as a citizen's basic obligation,this paper holds the conviction that the constitution establishes the basic obligation for citizens in order to better protect citizen's basic rights.Within the theoretical scope of the basic obligation of citizens,this paper discusses the subject and content of the constitutional obligation of environmental protection,and explores the constitution model of citizen's environmental protection obligations in our country.The paper is divided into four parts:Firstly,I talk about the basic principles of citizens' environmental protection obligations.The first part refers that environmental protection obligations are derived from environmental rights.Environmental rights inherently contains environmental obligations,which means that the subject must undertake environmental protection obligations while exercising environmental rights,thus leading to environmental protection obligations.The second part refers to the concept of citizens' environmental protection obligation is that the responsibility of acts or omissions which are confirmed by law that should be undertaken by citizens or other organizations in order to prevent the infringement of environmental interests,safeguard the good and lasting environmental interests,and improve and repair the deteriorated environmental conditions.It complements the citizen's environmental right and is the same as and different from the national citizen's environmental protection obligation.The third part refers that the obligation of environmental protection is rationally distributed to every member of society who enjoys environmental rights and interests,and stipulated by the fundamental law,the obligation of environmental protection becomes a basic obligation of citizens.There are three reasons that environmental protection obligation is a citizen's basic obligation: firstly,environmental protection obligation fits with the elements of citizen's basic obligation;secondly,citizen's basic obligation is not preconditioned by the explicit written constitution;thirdly,the constitutional texts of all countries in the world stipulate that environmental protection obligation is a citizen's basic obligation.The second part is the necessity of citizens' environmental protection obligations.Due to the serious environmental pollution in our country and the internationalization of environmental protection,citizens' environmental protection obligation is of practical necessity.The guidance of international and domestic sustainable development theories,the need to control state power for protecting citizens' basic environmental rights,and the need for the state to exercise its environmental authority make citizens' environmental protection obligations has theoretical necessity.The third part is the normative analysis of citizens' environmental protection obligations.Referring to the subject and content of environmental protection obligation stipulated in other countries' constitutions and the departmental laws of our country,it is concluded that the subject of environmental protection obligation in our constitution should be citizens,legal persons and other social organizations.The content of citizens' environmental protection obligation is divided into three levels: duty of full attention,duty of active maintenance andduty of improving as much as possible.In another words,in terms of behavior,citizens' environmental protection obligations includes the obligation of act and omission.The fourth part is the specific ways of constituting citizens' environmental protection obligations in China.After analyzing the existing environmental clauses in our constitution,it is found that there are two ways for the environmental protection obligation to enter the constitution: the amendment of the constitution and the interpretation of the constitution.For the citizen's environmental protection obligation,this paper proposes to adopt the interpretation of the constitution.