Research On Judicial Expertise Of Crime Of Environmental Pollution

The objective aspect of the crime of environmental pollution requires serious pollution of the environment,and the object is also limited to the scope of radioactive waste,toxic substances,etc.The degree of environmental pollution and the quantity of pollutants are important factors affecting the sentencing of the crime of environmental pollution.The determination of the constitution of crime and the facts of sentencing depends on the judicial identification of environmental damage.The judicial expertise of environmental damage can make scientific confirmation on the causal relationship between pollutant species,pollution degree,pollution behaviors and pollution results.On December 21,2015,the Supreme People's court,the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Department of Justice jointly issued a notice on the judicial expertise of environmental damage,which was brought into unified registration system.Judicial expertise of environmental damage has also become a new focus in academic studies,and numerous research results spring out.Present studies mainly concentrated on civil action,however,there is little relevant research on environmental pollution crime and relevant monographs in the criminal field.The judicial expertise of environmental damage in environmental pollution crime involves extensive contents,but there is no unified identification standard at present.Currently,the existing appraisal standards are made by the Department of Justice,the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and other provinces.The effect of applying them as the standards for imposing penalty remains to be discussed.Although the expert opinion on environmental damage acts professionally,in judicial practice,it is common to confuse factual causality and legal causality,which is reflected as blind obedience to the expert opinion,leading to the arrogation of judicial power by appraisal right.To exam the opinions of judicial expertise of environmental damage,we should not only have the regular review of the formal elements,but also pay attention to the review of the real contents,increasing the evaluation of evidence rule and legal principle on the basis of the factual causality,thereby make judgment accordingly.There are two ways to solve the problems related to the judicial expertise of environmental damage in environmental pollution crime,one is to improve the appraisal system and the other is to strengthen environmental professional knowledge of all parties concerned in the court trial.Through clear permit standard and effective management of the association,the problems of uneven distribution of appraisal resources and low appraisal efficiency will be solved.Combined with practice,the expert witness experience of AngloAmerican law system plays supplemental role in appraisal system,and helps to explore the expert juror based on the current people jurors.Learning from the experience of convergence case in French environmental justice prompts the environmental expertise of all parties involved in the court trial.