중국 환경공익소송에 대한 고찰

Abstract

China has achieved a rapid economic development since the economic reform, but at the same time, the environment has been seriously destroyed. The Chinese government has recognized the importance of the environmental protection and has already enacted more than 30 laws. However, the effect is not satisfactory. In such a situation, the importance of environmental public interest litigation(EPIL) as a supplementary mean between the government and market mechanisms is being emerged. China has stated the legitimacy of the EPIL through the revised China's Civil Procedure Law of 2012, and made a specific requirements with respect to the qualification of social organizations which can raise the EPIL by the revised Environmental Protection Law of 2014. Besides, on January 2015, Chinese Supreme People's Court laid down more specific provisions on various procedural elements of civil EPIL. However, although the revised Environmental Protection Law and Supreme People's Court's judicial interpretation clearly regulated on the standing of the social organizations, there are no clear provisions on the other plaintiffs, such as the prosecution, the administrative agency or the individuals. In addition, the public interest litigation is traditionally filed by anyone, even though they do not have a direct interest with the case. Considering the provisions on the contents of the claim, especially for the claim of compensation for the loss which was specified in the Supreme People's Court's judicial interpretation, we can acknowledge that this issue is open to dispute. Therefore, this paper firstly reviewed the definition of the EPIL, and compared the current regulations of US, Germany, and India. Secondly, it introduced the background of China's EPIL and the provisions on the locus standi, court of competent jurisdiction, contents of the claim, burden of proof and the relationship between the public interest litigation and private interest litigation, etc. Finally, following the basis of the above research, the elements of locus standi and contents of the claim which are current essential issues of China's EPIL were analyzed in this paper. On the whole, this paper puts the main purpose on the general introduction of China's EPIL.