The Application Of Restitution Liability In Environmental Public Interest Litigation

Environmental public interest litigation cases often involve complex legal relationships,Because of the diversification of interest subjects and interest relations,the uncertainty of the measurement range and judgment standard of environmental interest and value,the difficulty of maintaining environmental public interest,the high social cost,and the lack of accurate value judgment in the measurement of multiple interest relations bring great challenges to the realization of the value goal of environmental public interest litigation.In order to protect the environmental public welfare,the promulgation of the Environmental Protection Law,the Civil Procedure Law,the Administrative Procedure Law and the relevant judicial interpretation have improved the feasible judicial way for the maintenance of the environmental public welfare.However,in the process of environmental public interest litigation,due to the short development time,the litigation mechanism is not perfect,and the litigation rules and accountability rules often follow the traditional means and methods of civil rights and interest's maintenance.The interpretation of the Supreme People's Court follows the traditional form of responsibility for the maintenance of civil rights and interests.While bringing possibilities to environmental public welfare protection,it also brings great confusion to the judicial application,that is,the scope and content of environmental public welfare and traditional civil rights are not consistent,and there is no one-to-one reference relationship in the form of liability.Represented by the judicial application of the form of restitution liability,the purpose of environmental civil public interest litigation is not to restore the damaged ecological environment to the original state,which is neither possible nor necessary.In the environmental public interest litigation,the way to bear the responsibility of restoration can be took as the direct way of paying the cost of restoration and the indirect way of fulfilling the responsibility of restoration.How to correctly apply the responsibility form of "restitution" in the judicial interpretation of environmental public interest litigation,to provide the most effective way to repair the damaged ecological environment,and to repair and restore the environmental interest relationship between the damaged parties to the greatest extent,is a problem that needs to be correctly understood and agreed for the judicial organs and litigants.Based on the case of "Changzhou toxic land" environmental public interest litigation,this paper systematically analyzes two judgments of Changzhou intermediate court and Jiangsu superior court,in combination with the Environmental Protection Law,the Civil Procedure Law and the current situation and problems of environmental public interest litigation in China,to explore the applicable significance,direction range,subject of responsibility,implementation mode and implementation supervision of "restitution" as a form of responsibility,to improve the application of the liability form of environmental public interest litigation in China.