Legislative Construction Of Punitive Compensation System In Ecological Environment Infringement

Since the introduction of the punitive damages system for the first time in China's Consumer Protection Law,the Tort Liability Law,the Food Safety Law and the Trademark Law have also successively stipulated punitive damages systems,and punitive damages in tort field and continue to expand the applicable trend,makes the study of punitive damages system in our country has great development space.In practice,driven by economic interests,there are many acts of intentional infringement by infringers of ecological environment.Compensatory compensation in environmental pollution liability has been difficult to form an effective punishment for ecological environmental torts.Therefore,it is necessary to introduce punitive compensation to increases the illegal cost of the infringer and better safeguards the public interest and protects the living environment and legitimate rights and interests of the people.The introduction of a punitive damages system in the field of eco-environmental infringement is not only the specific refinement and implementation of the "green responsibility" in the General Principles of Civil Law,but also conducive to the protection of the natural environment and the promotion of ecological balance,and the realization of the green development goals of the five development concepts.In addition to the introduction and conclusions in this article,it mainly includes the following four parts:The first part mainly expounds the predicament of civil law infringement civil law relief in China at the present stage.In legislation,China's civil law relief for ecological environmental infringement is mainly stipulated in the eighth chapter of the Tort Liability Law.The remedy for the victim is compensatory.Compensatory compensation is too low and lacks effective punishment for the intentional infringer and incentive for the victim to safeguard their rights.In the real society,the infringers of the ecological environment often obtain huge economic benefits through the infringement,and the compensation liability for the victims only has the problem of low infringement costs.At the same time,due to the long-term,latent nature of ecological environmental torts and the need to prove the characteristics of causality by means of certain scientific and technical means,the situation of inadequate relief to victims is present.Compensatory compensation focuses on filling the victim's losses,and pays little attention to preventing the recurrence of infringements of infringers,resulting in the current dilemma of ecological environment infringement relief and light prevention.Finally,the connotation and basic characteristics of punitive damages are introduced..The second part mainly discusses the theoretical basis of the introduction of punitive damages system for ecological environmental torts.Firstly,it introduces the meaning and characteristics of punitive damages,and lays the foundation for the introduction of the punitive damages system as the basic theory.Then,from the four aspects of philosophy,sociology,economics and jurisprudence,the justification of introducing punitive damages into ecological environmental torts is demonstrated.Punitive compensation has a certain theoretical basis in both ancient Chinese philosophy and Western philosophy.Durkheim,a sociologist,believes that punishment has the function of maintaining social collective emotion,and Comte's theory of social organic whole also provides theoretical support for punitive damages.From the perspective of economics,not every infringement of ecological rights will be punished,and the amount of compensation for the victims may be far less than the economic benefits,the introduction of punitive damages can effectively solve this problem;In terms of jurisprudence,the basis of the introduction of punitive damages for ecological environmental torts is discussed from the perspective of the function of tort liability.The third part discusses the applicable conditions of punitive damages for ecological environmental torts.The application of punitive damages is based on compensatory compensation.Punitive damages are a form of compensation with punitive functions.Subjectively,the actor is required to have intentional or gross negligence.Objectively,it requires that the act is illegal and has consequences.The requirement is serious and the victim should bear the burden of proof of causality between the infringement and the damage result.However,punitive damages are not applicable in all cases.In the case of force majeure,victim intention and third-party reasons,the infringer may be relieved or exempted from liability.The fourth part has carried on the concrete construction to the ecological environment infringement punitive compensation system.Firstly,according to the classification of civil subjects in General Principles of Civil Law,this paper defines which civil subjects should be the subject of punitive damages for ecological environment infringement.Secondly,the specific amount of punitive damages should adopt the flexible amount model and refer to the specific case situation to determine.Finally,on the basis of argumentation,the author makes a specific design of the punitive damages system in the civil code compilation.