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The Erroneous Setting of the Essential Attribute of Environmental Public Interest Liability in China

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Environmental Public Interest Litigation in China

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Abstract

The mainstream view of the law academia and several important pieces of legislation in China mistakenly set the essential attribute of environmental public interest liability as civil liability. But its correct, implicit, and pre-existing essential attribute should be administrative liability. The erroneous setting of the essential attribute of environmental public interest liability as civil legal liability has led to a series of jurisprudential and legal institutional consequences including the conflicts of two types of environmental public interest liabilities with different attributes, the conflicts between administrative enforcement procedures and civil procedures of realizing environmental public interest liability, the conflicts between social organizations’ public authority and administrative agencies’ public authority. The causes of this erroneous setting include the impact of the theory of civil remedies for environmental public interest damage and the theory of crystallization of environmental rights as civil rights, and conceptual misunderstandings in the transplantation of environmental legal regimes from a common law system. Amendments in legislation should be made to change this erroneous setting of the essential attribute of environmental public interest liability to administrative liability.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Jin (1997), p. 194.

  2. 2.

    Cao (2000), p. 18.

  3. 3.

    Article 64 Environmental Protection Law (1989, revised 2014).

  4. 4.

    Article 1229 Civil Code (2021).

  5. 5.

    Administrative counterpart refers to the opposite party to the administrative agencies in administrative management relationship, that is, the individual and organization whose rights and interests are affected by the administrative agency’s decision and activities.

  6. 6.

    Lazarus (1993), p. 787.

  7. 7.

    Hiroki Kawamura (2018), pp. 9–11.

  8. 8.

    Article 1229 Civil Code (2021).

  9. 9.

    Huang (2020), pp. 242–243.

  10. 10.

    Huang (2020), p. 202. Ecological and environmental tortious liability and environmental public interest civil liability are same concepts in environmental legislation of China. However, in Civil Code, the terminology of ecological and environmental tortious liability is more often used to refer to environmental public interest civil liability.

  11. 11.

    Article 12, Measures on Environmental Administrative Sanction (2010).

  12. 12.

    Article 50, Administrative Compulsion Law (2011).

  13. 13.

    Article 51, Administrative Compulsion Law (2011).

  14. 14.

    Article 1234, Civil Code (2021).

  15. 15.

    Article 1232, Civil Code (2021).

  16. 16.

    CCP Central Committee and State Council Reform Plan on the Compensation Regime for Eco-environmental Damage (2017).

  17. 17.

    CCP Central Committee and State Council Reform Plan on the Compensation Regime for Eco-environmental Damage (2017)

  18. 18.

    VI. Negotiation on compensation, the Opinions on Several Specific Issues Concerning Promoting the Reform of the Compensation Regime for Eco-environmental Damage (2020).

  19. 19.

    Article 97 Administrative Litigation Law (1989, amended 2014 and 2017).

  20. 20.

    Xin (2019), p. 86.

  21. 21.

    Article 58 Environmental Protection Law (1989, revised 2014) authorizes social organizations meeting legal criteria the standing to file a lawsuit to a People’s Court for environmental pollution and ecological destruction acts which harm public interest.

  22. 22.

    Article 55 Civil Procedure Law (1991, amended 2007, 2012 and 2017) authorizes relevant organizations the standing to file a lawsuit to a People’s Court for acts which harm public interest such as environmental pollution, infringement of the legitimate rights and interests of multiple consumers, etc.

  23. 23.

    See Xin (2020), p. 80.

  24. 24.

    See Xin (2020), pp. 84–85.

  25. 25.

    Wang (2016), p. 112.

  26. 26.

    Xin (2015), p. 138.

  27. 27.

    Article 41, the Constitution of China (1982, amended 1988, 1993, 1999, 2004 and 2018).

  28. 28.

    See Xin (2020), pp. 86–89.

  29. 29.

    See Zhang et al. (2013), p. 46.

  30. 30.

    Article 64, Environmental Protection Law (1989, revised 2014).

  31. 31.

    Article 1229, Civil Code (2021).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Law, Law School of Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, Shandong, China

    Shuai Xin

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  1. Shuai Xin
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Correspondence to Shuai Xin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Law School of Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China

    Xi Wang

  2. School of Law & Justice, University of Southern Queensland, Ipswich, QLD, Australia

    Xiaobo Zhao

  3. School of Law and Justice, University of Southern Queensland, Ipswich, QLD, Australia

    Noeleen McNamara

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Xin, S. (2023). The Erroneous Setting of the Essential Attribute of Environmental Public Interest Liability in China. In: Wang, X., Zhao, X., McNamara, N. (eds) Environmental Public Interest Litigation in China. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26526-6_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26526-6_15

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-26525-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-26526-6

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