On The Legal Application Of Environmental Standards In Disputes Over Water Pollution Tort Liability

With the frequent occurrence of environmental pollution tort incidents,water pollution tort has been the main type of tort liability disputes in judicial practice.Because of the concealment,latency and the complexity of causality of the water pollution process.There are major controversies in both academic and theoretical circles about how environmental standards to be used in water pollution tort cases.The previous research on the application of environmental standards and laws mainly focused on the theoretical study of environmental pollution tort issues from the perspective of tolerance theory and interval between the public and private law.And they don't do the research on the specific types of environmental pollution.This article takes the judicial arbitration documents as the starting point,and examines the current legal application of water environmental standards and related disputes from an empirical perspective,so as to propose suggestions for better implementation of water environmental standards in water pollution tort liability disputes.First,this article selects relevant cases and conducts statistical analysis of samples.It divides into two parts: the establishment of tort liability and the assignment of tort liability.It summarizes the current application of water environmental standards by the judges in adjudicating water pollution tort cases.Based on the legal characteristics of water pollution tort cases,we summarized the main trial viewpoints and reasons in the relevant judicial trials,and found out the application of water environmental standards in water pollution tort dispute cases according to the two links of the establishment of tort liability and the allocation of tort liability.There are three main controversial issues: the identification of water pollution tort,the determination of causality in water pollution tort,and whether the responsibility distributions of the enterprises who meet the standards should be limited or not.Secondly,it analyzes why the water environmental quality standards should be used to define water pollution,and based on its limitations,it is denied that it has the effect of legal exclusion,and it is recognized that it can serve as scientific literature in the proof of the existence of water pollution.But it can be overturned by other stronger evidence;using the dichotomy of general causality and specific causality,it is found that the differences in the determination of causality of water pollution tort are mainly due to the lack of in-depth analysis of the water pollution relationship and the failure to find the existence different types of general causality have led to the misuse of the burden of proof rule,and environmental quality standards have failed to play a correct role in the determination of water pollution tort.Then it was found that in the case of water pollution tort,while the discharge of pollutants by the discharger meet the water pollution discharge standard it will still lead to the cause of water pollution tort.That mainly due to the disconnection between the water pollution discharge standard and the actual quality of the water environment and the slow update of the water pollution discharge standard.With the income theory,it is clear that the risk of corporate pollution discharge behavior is uncontrollable,and the polluters are by no means the only beneficiaries of the pollution discharge behavior,and they pay the corresponding sewage treatment fee for the water pollution discharge behavior.If only the enterprise bears the liability for tort,it is against fairness and justice.After legal analysis of the problems existing in these judicial practices,this paper believes that the water environment quality standards can serve as strong scientific evidence on confirming water pollution tort actions and the causal relationship between harms and damage results.The responsibility distributions of the enterprises who meet the standards should be limited while those who exceed the standards should take punitive compensation to follow the fair principle of risk-taking,alleviate the judicial dilemma in the establishment and distribution of liability for water pollution and environmental tort,and give full value to water environmental standards in water pollution tort cases.