A Study On The Application Of Prima Facie Evidence Rule In The Proof Of Causation In Environmental Tort Litigation

Preliminary evidence in our country environment tort civil lawsuit to prove causal relationship,to apply the basis can be traced back to 2014,the Supreme People’s Court on the trial comprehensively strengthen environmental resources to promote the construction of ecological civilization provide powerful judicial safeguard the opinions of the provisions of article 8 of the environment tort civil lawsuit the plaintiff need to submit the preliminary evidence for the presence of causality,a preliminary proof.In China’s environmental tort civil litigation,the burden of proof of causality,from the provisions on evidence in civil litigation in 2002 to the tort liability law of the People’s Republic of China in 2010,all provide that the defendant shall bear the burden of proof that causality does not exist,which is called the inversion rule of burden of proof by scholars.This rule has been used in judicial practice for a long time,but the principle of no fault has been applied in civil litigation of environmental tort in China,and causal relationship proof is the key issue to determine whether the civil litigation liability of environmental tort can be established.Therefore,it has been controversial in the legal field whether to implement the inversion of burden of proof in the civil action of environmental tort.This provision,issued by the supreme people’s court in 2014,has caused a new dispute,that is,what rules are applicable in the causal relationship proof of civil action for environmental tort.In 2019 the Supreme People’s Court on the several provisions of the civil lawsuit evidence "has been modified,but the article does not address the environment tort civil lawsuit proof of causality,and before the stipulated in article 4,causal clearance does not exist in the environmental tort civil lawsuit by the defendant bear the burden of proof this article be deleted,there is no other alternative explanations.Although this measure does not make it clear that prima facie evidence rule is applicable in the civil action of environmental tort,it explicitly removes the application of the inversion of burden of proof rule in the proof of causality in the civil action of environmental tort.In the civil action of environmental tort,the legislation only puts forward the word prima facie evidence,and there are no provisions and explanations on the questions of what prima facie evidence is,how prima facie evidence is applied in the proof of causality,and the proof standard of prima facie evidence determination,etc.Theoretically,there is no unified conclusion on these questions.As a result of the theoretical arguments and the defects in the legislation,the causal relationship in the civil action of environmental tort has not been solved.In this regard,this paper will explain the problems of prima facie evidence’s application in environmental tort civil action from the perspectives of the distribution of the burden of proof of causality,the standard of proof of prima facie evidence,and the method of proof,and analyze the reasons behind these problems.After referring to the relevant systems in other countries,this paper puts forward a proposal to improve the application of prima prima evidence in the proof of causality in civil action of environmental tort.This paper is divided into the following four parts:The first part puts forward the preliminary evidence in the environmental tort civil action causation of applicable legal basis,and after the new judicial interpretation issued a large number of case analysis,preliminary evidence found in the environmental tort civil lawsuit proof of causality is still exist a lot of the problems in the field of civil procedure law,it is concluded that the preliminary evidence in the environmental tort civil action causation of applicable in the necessity of further research.The second part analyzes the reasons for the application of prima facie evidence in the proof of causality in the civil action of environmental tort.Established in the first part of the problem,on the basis of analyzing the principle behind the judicial interpretation,from the environmental tort civil litigation because of the particularity of the causal relationship itself,to the choice of legal value differences and understanding of prima facie evidence of the Angle analysis preliminary evidence in environmental tort civil lawsuit to prove causal relationship for the cause of the problem.The third part introduces the application of prima facie evidence in the proof of causality in civil action of extraterritorial environment tort.This part mainly preliminary evidence in Anglo-American law system in the United States,Germany and Japan,the three countries of continental law system,the outside environment tort civil litigation prove prima facie evidence of causality theory more mature,form a complete set of system more perfect,outside related theory and application for preliminary evidence in our country in the environmental tort civil lawsuit to prove causal relationship problem has a certain significance.The fourth part is to perfect the application of prima facie evidence in the proof of causality in the civil action of environmental tort.On the basis of the first three parts and following the logic of putting forward the problem--analyzing the problem--solving the problem,this paper puts forward some Suggestions to solve the problem of applying prima facie evidence in the causality proof of civil action of environmental tort in China from the perspective of procedural law.