Research On Punitive Compensation Rules For Environmental Tort

The Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China(hereinafter referred to as the Civil Code)introduced punitive damages in the field of environmental tort,with the purpose and function of punishment,containment,compensation and prevention of punitive damages to compensate for the inability to protect the ecological environment and prevent environmental tort in the field of environmental infringement.However,the punitive damages system stipulated in the Civil Code still has the following problems in the application of substantive rules:First,the scope of the subject of environmental tort claim is narrow,the Civil Code stipulates that the subject of punitive damages law is the infringed,if only from the literal meaning of "infringed ",the scope of the subject of the right of claim is limited to the literal meaning of " infringed ",which can not effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of the deceased infringer,nor can it be linked with the public interest litigation and ecological environmental damage compensation litigation.Second,there are shortcomings in the subjective determination of punitive damages for environmental tort.First,the Civil Code stipulates that the subjective conditions for the application of punitive damages for environmental tort are intentional,the scientific intent mainly includes direct intentional and indirect intentional,and the determination of damage results caused by direct pollution of the environment is relatively simple,but there are also a lot of indirect intentional problems in practice.Secondly,the Civil Code excludes the application of gross negligence tort in punitive damages for environmental tort,but the perpetrators of gross negligence violate the most basic obligation of attention of ordinary people,Completely ignoring the public interests of the environment and the legitimate rights and interests of others,its censure has been infinitely close to and intentional tort,so gross negligence also has the certainty that the law should strongly deny.Third,the lack of objective elements of punitive damages for environmental tort.The objective elements of punitive damages for environmental tort include "violation of state regulations" and "serious consequences of damage to ecological environment ".The former is the requirement of the damage result of the behavior,here not only ignores the omission of the damage to the environment,but also blurred the relationship between illegal and infringement,the latter is the requirement of the degree of the consequences as the result of punitive damages,the legal responsibility is not a judicial relief to the right subject,more inclined to the fine behavior of administrative organs.Fourth,the calculation rules of environmental tort punitive damages are not clear,the Civil Code stipulates that environmental tort can request punitive damages,but there is no calculation standard of environmental tort punitive damages.Some scholars start from the point of view of ecological environment protection,some from material loss and spiritual loss,some from the point of view of financial capacity,different calculation standards of punitive damages are made.Different arguments exist on how the punitive damages for environmental infringement should be calculated.Perfecting the rules of punitive damages for environmental infringement is not only conducive to protecting the ecological environment,severely cracking down on the tortfeasors who cause pollution damage,and preventing the recurrence of pollution damage.At the same time,it also gives comprehensive compensation to the damage consequences caused by pollution damage to ecological environment.To bring the near relatives of the infringer,social environmental protection organizations,procuratorial organs and government departments into the scope of the subject of the right of claim,to perfect the defects that can not be applied for punitive damages for the death of the infringed person caused by the infringement,to respond to the environmental public interest litigation system and the ecological environment damage compensation system,establish a linkage mechanism between private benefit litigation and public interest litigation.Standardize the identification of the "intentional" scope of subjective elements,and take major negligence as one of the subjective elements to make up for the deficiencies of the current provisions of punitive compensation for environmental infringement.Supplement negative inaction as one of the behavior elements,improve the shortcomings of positive as the behavior elements,improve the result requirements,take into account the environmental public interests and others ’ personal and property rights and interests.The rules and calculation criteria of punitive damages for environmental infringement enable them to repair the damaged ecological environment and prevent the occurrence of environmental tort,and fully compensate the infringers who have suffered damage due to environmental pollution and ecological damage.Neither will the infringer benefit from environmental pollution a ecological damage nor will the social economy stagnate because of excessive punitive damages.