On The Establishment Of Joint Crime In Environmental Pollution Crimes

The Supreme People’s court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate issued the interpretation on Several Issues concerning the application of law in handling criminal cases of environmental pollution(hereinafter referred to as "interpretation [2016] No.29")which clearly stipulated that the crime of environmental pollution can be established as a joint crime,and confirmed that the crime of environmental pollution can be established as a joint crime in judicial practice.However,there are still controversies in academic circles about whether the crime of environmental pollution can be established as a joint crime.The source lies in different understanding of the essence of the joint crime,and the form of the crime of environmental pollution is not clear.It can be seen that the current research on the joint crime of environmental pollution is still focused on the subjective aspect,and there is a lack of systematic research on the joint crime of environmental pollution in judicial practice.Therefore,this article takes this as the breakthrough point to study the joint crime of environmental pollution.Specifically,this thesis is divided into five chapters:The first chapter introduces the research situation of the theory of joint crime at home and abroad related to this thesis,as well as the theoretical research situation of the joint crime of environmental pollution in China.According to the effective judicial documents,this thesis introduces the current judicial situation of joint crime of environmental pollution crime since the promulgation of "interpretation [2016] No.29".In the second chapter,in the sample of the effective judgment of the joint crime of environmental pollution,the objects to be punished include natural persons and units.Therefore,according to the nature of joint offenders,the joint crime of environmental pollution can be divided into three categories: joint crime between natural persons and units,joint crime between natural persons and common unit crimes.Under different classifications,how to make the intention contact between the defendants(units)and form the common criminal intention is the focus of this chapter.In chapter three,the behavior committed by the joint offenders of environmental pollution can be divided into behaviors of pollutant providers,behaviors of intermediaries,behaviors of operators and managers of enterprises and workshops,behaviors of employees engaged in production and processing,behaviors of transportation and dumping personnel,and behaviors of lessors of sites and equipment.This chapter mainly studies the theoretical division of the above behaviors,and analyzes whether it is appropriate to criminalize some of them.The fourth chapter is about the division of principal and accessory criminals and the penalty of joint crimes of environmental pollution.According to the collected samples of judgments,the court mainly identified operators and managers of pollution enterprises and workshop and pollution providers as the principal offenders,and the role played by other joint offenders varies according to the circumstances of the case.In the judgment that the joint crime of environmental pollution is divided into principal and accessory,the punishment of principal is higher than that of accessory.But in specific cases,whether the punishment of some accessory can be heavier than that of principal still has room for further discussion.Chapter five,based on the above research,summarizes the characteristics of the joint crime of environmental pollution and puts forward suggestions to optimize the judicial process.The joint crime of polluting environment has obvious upstream and downstream characteristics,and in the whole criminal chain,the relationship between operators and managers of polluting enterprises and workshop and employees engaged in production,processing,transportation and dumping is atypical.Therefore,the joint crime intention between the joint offenders of polluting environment is also atypical.The unique characteristics of the joint crime of environmental pollution lead to the improper expansion of the punishment scope of the crime.Therefore,in the future judicial process,the judges should carefully identify the boundary between the neutral helping behavior and the aider,and deal with the behavior that does not have the expected possibility.