Research On The Interaction Between Government And Public In The Environmental Legal Relationship

The public trust doctrine springs from the English law and can be traced to the Romans. It realizes the limitation on the administrative behavior and ecological protection in the American environmental protection practice and facilitates the development of the environmental undertaking dramatically.The core of the theory lies in restricting the administrative power and maximizing the public benefit. The public have the right to earnings and reserved ownership of the natural resources. As trustee, the government is authorized of the administrative power and charged with the duty to manage the public resources aiming at maximizing the public benefit. This legal principle clarifies the obligation of the government to protect and make good use of the natural resources and guarantee the privilege of the public as supervisor. The public trust doctrine can be used for our reference to remit the social contradictions triggered by balancing economic development and environmental protection.This paper tries to interpret the environmental legal relationship in China with the public trust doctrine. Nowadays, as the important legal parties in our environmental protection undertaking, the effect of the government and the public is distinctively insufficient. Establishing the environmental public trust relationship between them will provide the theoretic basis and scientific guidance. Analyzing on the feasibility of the new environmental supervision pattern with the public trust doctrine, this paper discusses the basis of environmental administrative power of the government, the necessity of regulation on the administrative discretion and the stimulation to effective performance of the officers. It also analyzes the qualification of the public in the environmental undertaking and the way of integrating influential organizations on the basis of citizen’s environmental consciousness.The public credibility, laws and regulations and consensus are the effective guarantee and access to realize the objective of environmental public trust. The public credibility is the foundation of legal ruling and qualification of being entrusted. The government should provide the public services and safeguard the natural resources actively. The key to enhance legal executive force is the understanding and supporting of the public, which can be realized by the comprehensive participation and supervision in the environmental affairs. The environmental delegated power in the primary level can be realized with the ‘community-city-country’ path. The negotiation organization of the environmental decision should not only include the government and experts, but also the public and other interested parties. With joint effort and benign interaction between government and public, the right to earnings of environmental resources can be available permanently to the contemporary people and their descendant.