Study On The Pre-litigation Procedures Of Environmental Public Interest Litigation

China's pre-litigation procedures of Environmental Public Interest litigation have been gradually improved,effectively saving judicial resources and improving the efficiency of dealing with environmental problems.The pre-litigation procedure system is the result of continuous summing up experience and optimization in practice.In 2012,the Civil Procedure Law was revised for the second time and the environmental civil public interest litigation system was initially established.The relevant authorities for infringing on environmental public welfare may file a lawsuit with the people's court and the procuratorate can support litigation or conduct prosecution when prosecution conditions are fulfilled;the Environmental Protection Law amended in 2014 clearly stipulates the conditions for the dissent of social organizations,although it has improved the enthusiasm of social organizations to participate in environmental public welfare to a certain extent.However,the field of environmental public interest litigation has had little effect,the number of litigation cases is small,and the litigation situation is not satisfactory.In order to better protect the public interest of the environment,the Supreme People's Procuratorate issued the "Provisional Initiative for Public Prosecutions by the Procuratorate" and the "Implementation Measures for the Pilot Project of Public Interest Litigation by the People's Procuratorate" in 2015,which for the first time prescribes the procedures for pre-litigation of environmental public interest litigation.After two years of pilot work to the full implementation of the environmental public interest litigation system,the pre-litigation procedure played an important role in urging social organizations to actively participate in the maintenance of environmental public welfare and supervise the administrative organs to perform their duties according to law.However,in practice,there are still some problems in the pre-litigation procedure: the limited social organization capacity in environmental civil public interest litigation may result in the false announcement of the pre-litigation procedure,the poor connection between the litigation procedure and the pre-litigation procedure;The criteria for responsibilities are not clear,the deviation of the independent value of the pre-litigation procedure and the limitation of the source of the case clues are constrained by the role of the pre-litigation procedure.The improvement of the pre-litigation procedure of environmental public interest litigation in China should be considered from the following two aspects: environmental civil public interest litigation and environmental administrative public interest litigation pre-litigation procedure.Because of the difference in theoretical nature and applicable conditions,the perfect suggestions of them cannot be mixed.In civil public interest litigation,more emphasis should be placed on improving the enthusiasm of social organizations to participate in environmental public welfare protection.Administrative public interest litigation should mainly focus on improving the initiative and efficiency of the administrative organs in performing their statutory functions.Although there are differences between the pre-litigation procedures of civil litigation and the administrative litigation,they are not completely separated and closely related.In practice,the effective docking between them is still very important for the role of the pre-litigation procedure.Based on the characteristics and purpose of pre-litigation procedures,this paper attempts to clarify the concept of pre-litigation procedures,analyze the characteristics of pre-litigation procedures and the dialectical relationship with litigation,and demonstrate the practical value and necessity of pre-litigation procedures to lay the theoretical foundation for the discovery and resolution of the problem.Secondly,through the practice of the two-year pilot period and the comprehensive implementation of environmental public interest litigation,case statistics and data analysis are carried out,and the status quo and existing problems of environmental civil public interest litigation and environmental administrative public interest litigation procedures are summarized.At the same time,it draws on foreign regulations on pre-litigation procedures,and provides reference for the improvement of pre-litigation procedures in environmental public interest litigation in China.For example,the relevant provisions in the pre-litigation procedures of the United States,Germany,and Japan have brought inspirations to the pre-litigation procedures of environmental public interest litigation in China: First,China should expand the scope of the main procedures for pre-litigation of environmental public interest litigation,encourage citizens and social organizations to actively participate in environmental public interest litigation;second,it is necessary to clarify and strengthen the responsibility and authority of environmental enforcement of administrative organs,and improve the initiative and efficiency of administrative organs to perform their duties according to law.