Research On The Application Of Restorative Justice In Environmental Crime Regulations

As China enters the new period and new stage of building socialism with Chinese characteristics,environmental pollution and other problems are becoming more and more serious,the continuous deterioration of the natural environment has made the public aware of the limited effectiveness of civil or administrative environmental protection measures in environmental protection and pollution control,and has turned its attention to criminal law,the concept of legislation of Environmental Criminal Law has also gradually changed from anthropocentrism to eco-centralism,which holds that "the object protected by environmental criminal law should not only include the legal interests of the person and property,but should also pay attention to the legal interests of ecology",the restorative justice,which is concerned about the restoration of damaged social relations,has been put forward again by scholars in the hope that it can make a contribution in environmental criminal law.In fact,restorative justice has the dual function of correction and punishment,which is in line with the international trend of mitigation of punishment,and has obvious positive effect in the regulation of environmental crimes outside the country,many provinces in China,such as Fujian Province,have also been applied in forest-related cases on a pilot basis,and have received support and recognition from the Supreme People’s Court.However,restorative justice is currently in the exploration and experimental stage in our country.Scholars have different opinions on its legitimacy and feasibility,although relevant academic achievements have been made,but most are still focused on juvenile delinquency and community corrections,and there has been less research on the application of restorative justice to environmental crime.Since the relevant directly applicable legal basis is absent from the criminal code,judges in judicial practice either do not attach corresponding legal provisions to such decisions,or by way of a civil suit collateral to a criminal case,the judge will be cautious in making such a decision,as there are doubts about the legality of invoking the "restoration of the original condition" in the General Principles of the Civil Law of the People’s Republic of China,the application of restorative justice in environmental judicial practice is very limited.This article takes the application of restorative justice in the Criminal Law of environmental crime as the direction,the first part takes the typical application ofrestorative justice in the Criminal Law of environmental crime as an example,this paper selects 250 criminal judgment documents of first instance in Fujian Province from 2016 to2018,and briefly analyzes the connotation of restorative justice and the contrast with traditional retributive justice,the second part mainly expounds the relevant value consideration of restorative justice in the application of China’s environmental criminal law in different levels,including legitimacy,legitimacy and rationality,and focused on the analysis of the relationship between restorative justice and the three basic principles of China’s criminal law,as well as responding to some controversial issues on restorative justice;The third part sums up and summarizes the problems existing in the application of restorative justice in China’s environmental criminal law and analyzes the reasons;the fourth part is the relevant suggestions and programs for the construction of the application system of restorative justice in China’s environmental criminal law,specifically,it includes the relevant legal basis,the applicable procedure and the supporting implementation mechanism of restorative justice.