The Research Of The Application Of Causation Presumption In Environmental Tort

Environmental pollution incidents occur repeatedly in recent years, especially for marineenvironmental pollution, which not only inflict irreparable damage to the environment, butalso infringe legal rights and interests of people related. This article introduces the oil-spillingincident happened at19-3oil field in Bohai Bay which caused severe damage to thefishermen there who at the same time is facing with difficulties of protecting their rights. Thereason lies in that the laws in China impose heavy burdens of proof on the victims inenvironmental tort cases, although it is prescribed in the Article66of the Tort Act of People’sRepublic of China that “for environmental pollutions the burden of proof shall be inverted,that is the polluter shall assume the burden to prove that there is no causation between theconduct and the harm,” in practice the courts still demand that the victims in environmentalpollutions shall demonstrate basic causation between the conduct and the harm, however, inenvironmental tort actions worldwide causations are generally presumptive.The author of present endeavor firstly observes the basic logics of presumption ofcausation, then introduces related theories in general while analyzing the current situationsand necessities of causation theory, and proposes some measures for the protection of legalrights and interests of the victims in environmental tort cases happened in China based ontheories of presumption of causation from abroad.This article examines causation in environmental tort cases from four aspects.The first section chiefly introduces the disputes arising from the oil-spilling incidents atthe19-3field in Bohai Bay, including the difficulties encountered by the fishermen obtainingevidence during the process of defending their rights, and then suggests that it is necessary forChina to import presumption of causation into environmental tort cases.The second part mostly is concerned with defining the concept of presumption ofcausation, and reveals the distinctions and connections among presumption of causation,inversion of burden of proof, and presumption of fault.The third section presents and studies related theories of presumption of causation fromforeign countries including "probability,"“epidemiological causation”, and “indirectreduction to absurdity".The fourth section observes the necessity of importing presumption of causation incontemporary China, demonstrates limitations of handling disputes concerning environmental tort cases in China as well as the legislative deficiency of presumption of causation inenvironmental tort cases, also briefly relates the difficulty in identifying causation inenvironmental tort actions, and at the same time points out that it is essential to importpresumption of causation for perfecting the remedies for the victims.The last section suggests certain ideas on the perfection of environmental tort causationin China based on presumption of causation theory from abroad. Being the most importantpart, it proposes some legislative suggestions and principles in light of the system ofpresumption of causation, describes the application of presumption of causation, and advisesthat different theories of presumption of causation shall be applied in environmental tort casesaccording to the nature of these cases.