The Research On The System Of Environmental Civil Public Interest Litigation Initiated By The Procuratorial Organ

Along with the deepening of reform and opening up,China has become the world’s second largest economy,while economic and social development is rapid,environmental problems are becoming more and more serious,and the task of ecological environmental protection is still arduous.The report of the 20 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that "Chinese-style modernization is the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature." The harmonious coexistence between man and nature is the original value concept of Chinese civilization.Environmental civil public interest litigation is a system to protect the environment through litigation by organs and organizations prescribed by law in the absence of interested parties.In 2014,the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18 th CPC Central Committee proposed to explore the system of procuratorial organs filing public interest lawsuits.After two years of trial,procuratorial organs have accumulated rich experience in handling cases.The Civil procedure Law was amended in 2017,adding paragraph 2 on the basis of the original Article 55,giving procuratorial organs the right to bring public interest litigation to the court without bringing a lawsuit.Procuratorial organs have become the last line of defense for the protection of environmental public interests in our country.In order to cooperate with the procuratorial organs to initiate environmental civil public interest litigation,the Supreme people’s Court and the people’s Procuratorate jointly issued the interpretation of several issues concerning the Application of Law in Procuratorial Public interest Litigation cases in 2018(hereinafter referred to as "Procuratorial Public interest Litigation interpretation").The relevant system of procuratorial public interest litigation is further refined.In 2021,the Supreme people’s Procuratorate issued the rules for handling Public interest Litigation of the people’s Procuratorate(hereinafter referred to as the "rules for handling cases"),which created some new mechanisms and measures for strengthening procuratorial public welfare protection.The relevant legislation and rule system have been continuously improved,and the exploration of procuratorial organs in practice has been constantly enriched.while giving full play to judicial initiative,the concept of "harmonious symbiosis between man and nature" has been put into practice.However,as a young system,there are still some problems to be explored and improved in the judicial practice of procuratorial environmental civil public interest litigation.This paper is divided into four parts.The first part is the overview of the procuratorial environmental civil public interest litigation system,and analyzes the relevant theories of procuratorial environmental civil public interest litigation.The second part elaborates the current situation and existing problems of the system,and uses the empirical research method to put forward the deficiencies in judicial practice,including the deviation of the main body positioning of the procuratorial organ in litigation,improper distribution of burden of proof,the difficulty of applying punitive compensation and the imperfect connection mechanism with the ecological environmental damage compensation litigation.In the third part,it analyzed the foreign public interest litigation system and our country by comparative analysis method,and explored its enlightenment on environmental civil public interest litigation system.The fourth part puts forward the corresponding solutions to the problems raised above.It includes clarifying the position of the procuratorial organ,improving the supporting and assisting mechanism of the procuratorial organ,reasonably distributing the burden of proof,improving the punitive compensation system,and improving the connection mechanism with the ecological environmental damage compensation litigation.