Research On Responsibility-bearing Ways Of Environmental Civil Public Interest Litigation

Since January 2015,the new "Environmental Protection Law" has clearly stipulated the environmental public interest litigation system and the Supreme People’s Court issued the "Interpretation of Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Environmental Civil Public Interest Litigation Cases"(here in after referred to as "Judicial Interpretation").Then environmental civil public interest litigation has been continuously explored and perfected in judicial practice but the traditional civil liability commitment method can no longer match the development needs of environmental justice practice.The public’s awareness of rights protection in environmental has been raised,and new demands for protecting the natural ecological environment have been put forward,but they cannot be realized through the existing civil legal responsibility.Obviously,China’s environmental damage and ecological damage relief theories are still limited to the traditional tort liability framework.This not only does not adapt to the complex and everchanging ecological environment problems,but also does not meet the requirements of the current urgent establishment of a special environmental legal liability system.Therefore the author chooses the perspective of environmental civil public interest litigation as the entry point,and combines the judicial practice case to explore the innovation and development of multiple responsibility-bearing method.Firstly,the characteristics of environmental civil public interest litigation are analyzed theoretically.Under the premise of safeguarding the public’s environmental common interests,it is preliminarily found that the responsibility-bearing method should not be confused with the civil infringement legal liability.The responsibility-bearing method involved in environmental civil public interest litigation belongs to the environmental legal liability system.Therefore,it should follow the basic principles of environmental law and have professional technical means to safeguard the public’s environmental common interests.Then it analyzes the value and function pursued by the responsibility-bearing method,which is the necessary premise and foundation for expanding the rules of innovation responsibility-bearing method.On the basis of the above theoretical analysis,combined with the judicial trial finished case of2018 environmental civil public interest litigation in the whole year,it is found that the responsibility-bearing method is constantly innovating and developing in judicial practice but facing many difficulties.The traditional civil responsibility-bearing method has caused obstacles to the function and procedure of environmental civil public interest litigation: the preventive responsibility-bearing method can’t prevent the occurrence of environmental damage in time;the compensation responsibility-bearing methods lack punitiveness;the recovery responsibilitybearing method can’t restore the ecological environment.Also,there is a lack of procedural safeguards such as the ways of using corresponding fees and the appraisal rules.Then,it proposes a series of innovative developments in a targeted method.First of all,it should establish an independent legal status and make it out of the shackles of the traditional civil legal liability system.Secondly,the specific countermeasures to solve the functional obstacles are to learn from the preventive responsibility of the US and India environmental bans to ensure the prevention effect;refer to the punitive responsibility-bearing method to enhance the role of deterrence;refer to the concept,repair standards and means in ecological restoration responsibility-bearing method.The specific countermeasure against procedural obstacles is that:by completing laws and regulations to clarify the evaluation and appraisal standards for damages and ecological restoration,improving the appraisal level of judicial appraisal institutions,and improving the professional knowledge of court judges,etc.,forming a special environmental damage judicial evaluation system;establishing environmental public interest litigation.Finally,the litigation purpose of ecological restoration will be realized and the public’s public environmental common interests will be safeguarded.