Government Responsibility In Commons

Commons is a new concept which is constructed in the field of environmental law. It is an ecological product demanded by the ecological civilization. It reflects not only the material needs of human beings, but also a kind of spiritual pursuit. It is a product of the development of the era, which represents public interests. Subjects of right are non-specific most people, and the form of rights exercising is free and non-exclusive use of specific objects as environment, environmental factors, natural resources and property. Commons is indispensable material basis and conditions of human survival and development. As a country’s most authoritative manager and the largest server, government should bear the responsibility to commons. Government’s responsibilities to commons include providing, managing and protecting commons, preventing it from related tragedies and assuring the commitment and performance of the obligations and responsibilities. This dissertation holds that the responsibilities of government to protect commons and to prevent related tragedies or damage are included in the responsibilities of the government to provide and manage commons. This dissertation tries to analyze and interpret commons and its responsibilities from the perspective of environmental law. Government responsibilities in this article will be separately explained in the following aspects:commons, government responsibilities in commons, government’s responsibilities in providing and managing commons, and responsibility investigation. The research approaches applied mainly include documentary research, comparative analysis, historical analysis and empirical analysis, which are used to demonstrate and analyze the above mentioned responsibilities, and probe into the issue of improving related law legislation and fostering government’s practicing of responsibilities.This dissertation consists of five chapters.Chapter Ⅰ "Overview of commons". Stipulating the concept and connotation of commons is the foundation and starting point of a study on government responsibilities in commons, which has an important theoretical significance on related discussion. This chapter analyzes in detail commons’concept, introduces and compares related concepts, thereby analyzes commons’ unique connotation. The interests and values of commons as well as the right property of using commons are analyzed. This chapter argues that commons does not reflect reflective benefits but basic human rights. At the same time, commons’values are diverse, including ecological value, aesthetic value, philosophical values, social values and legal values. Public’s right embodied in commons is non-exclusive. It is a basic human right, which is different from private law right, quasi-object rights, resource rights and public easements, embodying environmental law’s concerns on specific human rights, namely, life, development, freedom and equality. This chapter also analyzes commons’purpose, scope, environmental law values and environmental law function from the perspective of environmental law, which explains the characteristics of commons.Chapter Ⅱ"Overview of government responsibilities in commons". This chapter shares the theoretical basis and the historical development of government responsibilities in commons, the relationship between government responsibilities in commons and government authority and public rights, as well as related regulations. This chapter defines the connotation of government responsibilities in commons, and divides it into government primary responsibility and government secondary responsibility, i.e., active responsibility and negative responsibility. The theoretical basis of government responsibilities in commons is also explained, which mainly consists of the public trust doctrine and the Social Contract, assigning justice theory and the theory of equality of resources and environmental rights and environmental good governance theory. The history of the development of government responsibilities in commons, reflects function changes of both foreign and our governments’protection and attention on commons. This chapter analyzes the relationship between government responsibilities in commons and government authority, as well as public rights. It argues that the relationship between government responsibilities in commons and government authority is a logical one, that between government authority and public rights is a intensive one, the relationship between government responsibilities in commons and public rights is asymmetrical. When requirements and problems of government responsibilities in commons is analyzed, this chapter takes example of the provisions of government responsibilities in commons in legal norms, and combines with practice to conclude existing problems in government regulations.Chapter Ⅲ "Government provision of commons". First, this chapter analyzes the basic connotation of the government provide, compares the meaning of provision, supply and demand and their relationship from the perspective of semantics, and proposes an interpretation of commons provided by the government. It argues that commons can be provided by government in several methods:directly or indirectly, with toll or and toll free. Secondly, status of commons provided by the government is analyzed, including the background study and the real problems. Finally, related issues are studied from the terms of legal provisions, based on which relevant recommendations are proposed.Chapter Ⅳ "Government management of commons". This chapter starts with semantic introduction of governance, regulation, control and management, and takes "management" to study related concepts and characteristics. Secondly, it studies on the major management responsibilities of government agencies. The unique characteristic of commons decides that different government agencies have different responsibility. Finally, the realities and current laws on government management of commons are studied, existing problems are concluded, and recommendations are put forward to improve government management of commons.Chapter Ⅴ "responsibility investigation mechanisms". Firstly, four major responsibility investigaiton mechanisms, namely, legislature responsibility investigation mechanism, judiciary responsibility investigation mechanism, executive authorities responsibility investigation mechanism, public responsibility investigation mechanism, are studies in terms of their different subjects. The legislature and the judiciary ones have oversight powers responsibility and supervision methods, the executive authorities one uses the internal responsibility and supervision method, public accountability one applies the non-power approache. In a word, every way of investigation has its own particularity. Secondly, the problems of the four responsibility investigation mechanisms are summarized. Finally, the government responsibility in different types of commons have different ways of taking and investigation. There can be different ways to improve responsibility investigation.Finally, in the conclusion, the disseration holds that government responsibilities in commons should be adjusted in the construction of ecological civilization and "beautiful China", the fulfillment of government responsibilities which are coherent with the development of the times and society should be supported by the legislation, the updating of concept, and system facilities, as well as other actions and measures.