Study On Punitive Damages System In Environmental Torts

In recent years, China’s economy has maintained a steady and fast development; however, because of the extensive mode of economic development, the environmental concerns are becoming increasingly serious. Environmental tort damages the citizens’ personal right, property rights and the environmental right, affects the production, daily life of the citizens and even threatens people’s survival. The environment problem has become the significant livelihood of the people question. Environment is the basic element for economic development; good environment is advanced and lasting productivity, and it is a kind of scarce resources. Therefore, we must change the mode of economic growth which is at the expense of the environment and waste of resources by institutional construction, in order to realize the comprehensive protection of the legitimate rights and interests of the citizens.This paper establishes the principle of punitive damages in the environmental malicious tort civil compensation, and introduces the punitive damages into environmental tort liability from the perspective of environmental legal liability, in order to achieve the punishment and sanctions to environmental tort, the comprehensive protection of the rights and interests of environmental victims and to preserve the justice and social harmony and stability.The paper is mainly divided into four chapters.The first chapter is the summary of environmental legal liability, in view of environmental problems and environmental legal liability system, the existing environment legal liability system doesn’t work in face of the new situation and new problems of the environmental protection, so the suggestion that introducing the punitive damages into environmental tort liability is put forward.The second chapter describes the theories of punitive damages, including the punitive damages’historical development and the future, the concept, nature, characteristics, function of punitive damages and the study of China’s punitive damages legislation. The third chapter analyses the legitimacy of bringing punitive damages into environmental tort liability, including the legal argumentation and law and economics analysis two aspects. Legal argumentation mainly introduces the theoretical basis of bringing punitive damages into environmental tort liability. Law and economics analysis mainly analyzes the economics foundation of bringing punitive damages into environmental tort liability The last part is about the commendations of the points that question bringing punitive damages into environmental tort liability.The fourth chapter is about the institution construction of punitive damages in environment tort liability, and is mainly discussed from the applicable conditions, plaintiff qualifications and defendant qualifications, the confirmation of the damage compensation amount and the defenses, in order to realize the institutionalization of punitive damages in the environmental tort liability.