Research On The Judicial Determination Standard Of The Crime Of Environmental Pollution

In accordance with the provisions of article 338 of the criminal law and in violation of state regulations,discharge,dump or dispose of radioactive waste,waste containing infectious disease pathogens,toxic substances or other harmful substances,thereby seriously polluting the environment shall be...The provisions explicitly describes "serious environmental pollution" as an act,however,article 1 of the interpretations of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on some issues concerning the application of the law in handling criminal cases of environmental pollution(hereinafter referred to as "legal interpretation 2013" and "legal interpretation 2016")promulgated in2013 and 2016 included,to varying degrees,funds describing the "results".This leads to the conflict between judicial interpretation and law.At the same time,environmental pollution cases are also controversial in judicial practice.Based on the statistical analysis of 4,161first-instance judgments of environmental pollution crimes in 2018-2019,the judges in practice did not have a unified understanding of the legal interests infringed by this crime,and the structure of behavior and form of guilt of this crime were often ignored in the judgments.The focus of the problem lies in the different definition standards of "serious environmental pollution" stipulated in the law.The fundamental reason for the different definition standards of "serious environmental pollution" is the different understanding of the legal interest of its damage.Moreover,the lack of clear understanding of the nature of "serious environmental pollution" leads to the ambiguous definition of the crime pattern.China's laws on environmental protection not only protect the vital interests of human beings,but also protect the environment itself.In the final analysis,the legal interest of environmental crime protection is "the ecosystem itself",so a "unitary view of the central legal interest of ecology" should be adopted.Due to the particularity of the legal interest protected by the crime of environmental pollution,it is necessary to judge the behavior structure of the crime without the special judgment of causality,so the crime is an act crime.The form of liability for the crime of environmental pollution can only be intentional,not negligent,still less "mixed theory".