The Protection Of Administrative Law On Citizens’ Environmental Rights

The increasingly serious air pollution problem has become a hotspot in China and gives rise to many controversial ideas from the public.At the same time,people’s great concern and hot debate over this issue signify citizens’ awakening to safeguarding their own environmental right. Environmental right first appeared during the worldwide environmental crisis burst out in the late 1940s, lasting to early 1950s, when severe environmental pollution led to numerous illnesses and deaths in a short span of time. Such cases were common to find all over the world. For instance, Great Smog of 1952 in London, Britain, Los Angeles photochemical smog disaster in United States, and Yokkaichi asthma episode in Japan. All these events not only caused great damage to local environment, but also threatened human survival. Therefore, the environmental right emerged as a necessity. Since 2012, hazy weather caused by air pollution has become a phenomenon not rare to see in many cities in China. Such smog is a violent invasion of citizens’ environmental right. However, this right loses its effective guarantee for existing regulations or laws do not endow it clearly. Living in a time when air pollution problem is rather prominent in cities, we can never neglect people’s right claim to a comfortable and healthy living environment. Consequently, it is imperative and feasible to protect people’s environmental right by administration law.This thesis firstly makes a brief introduction of the basic theories of environmental right, and then gives opinions and sets forth position on this issue based on generalizing different theories and propositions on the main part and content of environmental right in academia. Secondly, the thesis gives analysis on distinctiveness and embodiments of violation of citizens’ environmental right by polluted city air combining with practical experience, with the aim to reveal the seriousness of air pollution at the present stage and the urgency to solve this problem. Finally, the thesis illustrates the administration law of environmental right protection from two aspects,The former includes the protection of citizens’ right to know and to participant; the latter is a comprehensive protection from legislation, law-enforcement and justice level, which correspond to achieving legislative confirmation of environmental right and improving legislation system on cities’ air pollution control, transforming ways of environmental law-enforcement, and proposing advice on establishment of environmental administrative public interest litigation respectively.