On Authority Principle In Environmental Civil Public Interest Litigation

With the progress of the times and the deepening of reform,China's economic level has gradually improved,but environmental pollution problems have also intensified,and environmental public welfare cases have been increasing.This shows that environmental issues have increasingly become a major issue affecting the vital interests of the public.As a superstructure,the law has a lagging feature relative to the economic foundation,which determines that the law creation of environmental cases should meet the needs of social development,and it is constantly improved and reformed in practice to make the legislation of environmental lawsuits and judicial practice consistent adapt.Based on this,in recent years,China has made relevant provisions on environmental pollution in criminal,administrative,and civil litigation to curb the occurrence of environmental pollution and punish the acts that pollute the environment.As far as civil lawsuits are concerned,the Civil Procedure Law,the Environmental Protection Law,relevant judicial interpretations,and regulatory documents have been revised and implemented in order to establish and gradually improve environmental civil public interest litigation systems.However,jurisprudentially,environmental civil public interest litigation belongs to the category of public interest litigation,which is very different from traditional private interest litigation,which incorporates many new elements and belongs to a new type of litigation.But from the perspective of legislation,China's environmental civil public interest litigation is still within the operating framework of private interest litigation and fails to properly and effectively regulate conflicts between public and private interest litigation,the procedural jurisprudence and litigation rules of traditional civil litigation have not been fully applicable.The practical situation of using public interest litigation system to solve public interest litigation issues has increasingly limited the environmental civil public interest litigation,and the current legislation cannot fully adapt to the trial of environmental public interest cases in judicial practice.Therefore,under the objective background that public interest litigation is included in the operating framework of private interest litigation,it is imperative to determine a set of operational rules for environmental civil public interest litigation based on the purpose and connotative characteristics of public interest litigation.Therefore,on October 18,2019,Vice President Jiang Bixin of the Supreme People's Court made a long-term vision and delivered a speech at the National Court of Environmental Public Interest Litigation and Ecological Environmental Damage Compensation Litigation Trial Work Advancement.First affirmed the major achievements and progress made since the establishment of China's environmental public interest litigation system,and pointed out the problems and deficiencies in the current litigation trials.At the same time,it also identified the focus and direction of future environmental public interest litigation work,and put forward a lot of valuable in the promotion of future environmental public interest litigation Constructive comments.Vice President Jiang Bixin believes that people's courts at all levels need to deeply understand the value positioning and institutional significance of environmental public interest litigation,ensure the effective play of the trial role,and put forward a number of specific requirements for the exercise of the powers of courts at all levels,such as accurately grasp the focus of the trial of environmental public interest lawsuits filed by social groups and procuratorial organs.Properly handle the relationship between judicial power and administrative power in accordance with the law,accurately grasp the limits of the exercise of judicial power.Properly balance the conflicts of interest of individual cases,etc.,and provide specific reference opinions on the rational exercise of court powers.This article takes this as a starting point,firstly expounds the basic issues of environmental civil public interest litigation,and makes a horizontal comparison between the litigant and authoritarian litigation modes.It argues that more court authority intervention is required in public interest litigation.The necessity of court intervention in the process of environmental civil public interest litigation has been analyzed.At the same time,the "degree" and "quantity" of power participation should be determined,and the scope of court powers and party disposition rights should be reasonably divided.Secondly,based on the above analysis,the author starts from the current legislation of environmental civil public interest litigation in China,finds the relevant provisions of environmental civil public interest litigation,and summarizes the scope of the role of Chinese courts in environmental civil public interest litigation.Furthermore,from the chronological order of the progress of the procedure,the actual status of China's power in environmental civil public interest litigation is analyzed.Finally,specific countermeasures are proposed for the disadvantages in the litigation.This article is based on making environmental civil public interest litigation in China neither becomes a tool of authority for absolute control,nor is it absolutely left to the parties,contrary to the nature of public welfare,reasonably solving the application of powers in environmental civil public interest litigation.At the same time,specific references are provided on how the court's functions and powers should be run,with a view to stimulating the founders of the procedure to provide reference guidelines for the normative exercise of the court's powers and to promote the vigorous development of China's environmental protection cause.