Research On The Application Of Punitive Compensation In Environmental Civil Public Interest Litigation

The "Green Principle" has been written into the Civil Code and has become a basic principle of civil law.18 of the 1,260 articles are closely related to environmental protection.While a special section has been set up in the Tort Liability Compilation to stipulate tort liability for environmental pollution and ecological damage.The possibility of being accountable for punitive damages shows that the importance of ecological environment in our country is self-evident.Environmental public interest,as an important social public interest,has increasingly drawn wide attention in the society.Public interest litigation is required to protect the environmental public interest.The Supreme People’s Court has stipulated clearly in its interpretation of punitive damages applied to ecological environmental tort disputes that punitive damages can be applied to environmental civil public interest litigation,which reflects the strong determination of our law to further enhance protection to the public interest of the environment by strict means.It cannot be denied that although this judicial interpretation of punitive damages for ecological environmental infringement makes provisions on the applicable rules of punitive damages,some parts still need to be further refined.This paper puts forward suggestions on refining and improving the applicable rules by exploring the current situation and dilemma of the application of punitive damages clauses.This paper is divided into four chapters.The first chapter is about the rationality and necessity of applying punitive damages to environmental civil public interest litigation.By combing current laws and regulations such as the Civil Code,the Civil Procedure Law and relevant judicial interpretations,and analyzing the reality of environmental damage compensation cases and the function of punitive damages,it can be concluded that such application is reasonable and necessary.The second chapter is about the current situation and dilemma of the application of punitive damages in environmental civil public interest litigation.By analyzing the cases of environmental civil public interest litigation in the past ten years and the cases of the application of punitive damages in environmental civil public interest litigation after the promulgation of the Civil Code,it can be concluded that the trend of applying punitive damages clause in environmental civil public interest litigation has been increasing at the current stage,while the number of cases is small,and the majority of the cases are the same compensation,and there are realistic situations such as different judgments in the same case.It is pointed out that there are some problems,such as unclear evidence proof standard,and the method of calculating the amount of compensation needs to be improved.The third chapter is about the scope and applicable conditions of punitive damages in environmental civil public interest litigation.From the perspective of practice,it subdivides and analyzes the types of public interest litigation cases with serious consequences.At the same time,it lists the applicable conditions of punitive damages according to the order of subjective,objective,outcome and causality.The fourth chapter is about the liability of punitive damages in environmental civil public interest litigation,and puts forward suggestions on the determination of the amount of punitive damages and how to deal with the liability on time.When quantifying the amount of punitive damages,it is important to standardize the assessment of ecological environmental losses.It is particularly important to formulate scientific,legal,normative and effective assessment rules for ecological environmental losses,so as to solve the problem of the large difference in the assessment of ecological environmental losses caused by different regions,different institutions,different methods and different standards to the greatest extent.When quantifying the standard for calculating the amount of compensation,the multiple standard should be reasonably determined and the flexible amount model should be adopted to comprehensively consider the subjective degree of malice,the size of damage consequences,the situation of obtaining income,the attitude of punishment and the adoption of remedial measures of the subject of tort.The economic capacity of the infringer should be taken into consideration,and the setting of "multiple" should be further standardized by law.When punitive compensation liability conforms criminal liability and administrative liability,in the situation of punitive damages for environmental civil public interest litigation has been quantified,it is necessary to comprehensively consider the situation that the offender of tort acts bears criminal fines,administrative fines and other merits and legal liabilities,strengthen legislation as soon as possible,introduce specific rules for comprehensive consideration,further standardize judicial behavior and improve judicial efficiency.