Comparative Study On Punitive Damages System Of Environmental Infringement In China And South Korea

Nowadays,there are more and more serious natural problems such as the environmental pollution and the destruction of ecology,all countries in the world has regard environmental rights as an important right and become more proactive in responding to solving environmental infringement.Thus,introducing punitive damages in the field of environmental infringement has became the tendency in the whole world.China’s current application of the environmental tort relief system is the compensatory principle,which cannot punish the infringers who maliciously infringe the environment.Courts at all levels also rejected punitive compensation requests for malicious infringers of the environment,meanwhile our country did not establish an infringement punitive compensation system.It is necessary for China to introduce a punitive compensation system for environmental torts,as the punitive compensation system cannot only comprehensively remedy the victims,but also play a role in preventing environmental torts.In the Civil Code(Draft)promulgated by China in 2020,the punitive compensation was introduced for the first time in the field of environmental infringement.South Korea initially applied the compensatory principle into the environmental tort relief system,and opposed the introduction of a punitive compensation system in the Korean civil law system.However,in order to curb malicious infringers,South Korea has successively introduced punitive damages in some areas such as the protections of food safety and intellectual property.Subsequently,due to the increasingly serious environmental problems,in order to effectively protect the health of individuals,a punitive compensation system for environmental infringement was introduced in the Environmental Health Law revised in June 2019.Although China’s "Civil Code(Draft)" introduces a punitive compensation system in the field of environmental infringement,by comparing the punitive compensation system for environmental infringement between China and South Korea,it could be found that the provisions of punitive compensation for environmental infringement in China are too general in principle.There are still some details that need to be improved on specific application issues in the future,while the environmental tort punitive damages system established by South Korea is worthy of reference for China,which are more reasonable in terms of constituent elements,liability attribution and compensation limits.Therefore,through the comparative study of the punitive compensation system for environmental infringement between China and South Korea,the following suggestions on China’s relevant systems are obtained:At first,due to the gross negligence is almost intentional subjective fault,it is necessary to include the gross negligence as a subjective element of punitive compensation for environmental infringement in relevant provisions.Secondly,in order to prevent some malicious operators from using the limited liability system of the company in exchange for high profits which caused the environmental infringement,it is necessary to specifically assign the responsibility for environmental infringement to the company’s operator.Finally,China has not set a limit for punitive damages.Based on China’s previous legislative experience and the mode in which South Korea limits the amount of punitive damages to less than 3 times the actual loss,China could limit the amount of punitive damages within three times of the actual loss in order to prevent punitive damages from causing excessive relief disputes.Besides,we could also consider whether China can establish an environmental charity welfare to provide more timely assistance to victims and better protection of the environment.