Research On Selection Of Environmental Public Interest Litigation’s Plaintiff

The public interest of the environment has been damaged frequently with thedevelopment of economy. The public interest of environment is abstract anduncertainty. Therefore, when we talk about the right to appeal, either the person whoenjoys the right to appeal is lack of the ability to prosecute, or no one filed a lawsuiton behalf of public interest.As a result, there is a damage but without a relief.Establishment of environmental public interest litigation system has become aconsensus. China has basically established environmental public interest litigationsystem with the revision of "Civil Law" and the "Environmental Protection Law".The focus of the environmental public interest litigation system is the selection ofplaintiff. The two main laws have clearly defined environmental executive andenvironmental organizations as plaintiffs.This paper collected42major cases onenvironmental public interest litigation from2007to December of2014. These casesshowed that there were many kinds of plaintiffs in the practice of environmentalpublic interest litigation prosecution.The plaintiffs include procuratorial organs,administrative organs, environmental organizations and individuals. There is no directlegal support for procuratorial organs and individual citizens to be plaintiffs.Theoretically, these various subjects are eligible to become a plaintiff ofenvironmental public interest litigation. First of all, individual citizens’ right to appealcan not be limited based on the concerns of frivolous lawsuits and lack of litigationcapacity. Judicial remedy is the last safeguard of environmental damage. In order toprotect the environment, a subject who is more capable should be given the right toappeal.In this way, the individual citizens should make sacrifices on their right toappeal and should be compensated by perfect supervisory system. At the sametime,individual citizens should get the right of appeal as time goes by. Environmentalgroups are the best subjects to be plaintiffs of environmental public interest litigation.Environmental organizations do have a clear legal basis for the plaintiffs, and haveadvantages over other subjects. But environmental groups currently are subjected to some problems such as the law, lacking of funding,lacking of talented people and soon, so that they failed to give full play to the role of plaintiffs. Government shouldsupport the development of environmental organizations, and improve the ability toparticipate in environmental public interest litigation. Although the executive has theadministrative enforcement, sometimes administrative means are insufficient toachieve the purpose of relief.It is necessary for administrative organs to have the rightto appeal when they exhausted the administrative means. When the environmentalpublic interest is damaged, the prosecutions who are on behalf of the national interesthave the right to maintain the environmental benefits. Unfortunately,there is no onelaw gift prosecutors the right to appeal for environmental public interest. It issuggested that when "Procuratorate Law" is revised, it’s better to define thatprosecutors have the right to appeal for public interest.In terms of the system design, the consideration of the position and the role ofvarious subjects should be taken.And ensure prefect supervision mechanism forindividual citizen, make it more easy for environmental organizations exercise theright to appeal. It is necessary for administrative organs to have the right to appealwhen they exhausted the administrative means.Prosecutors as plaintiffs ofenvironmental public interest litigation should be modest restraining. They can beplaintiffs only when the absence of the other subjects and it is a better choice for themto support other subjects when they involved in the prosecution of environmentalpublic interest litigation. And we can set pre-programmed in environmental publicinterest litigation filed to guarantee the power of administration priority.