Study On The Legal Interests Of Crimes Of Environmental Pollution

The concept of "beautiful China" was proposed in the 18 th national congress of the communist party of China.Subsequently,the significance of ecological civilization construction was constantly emphasized.The state leaders pointed out that ecological civilization construction is vital to the future development of the Chinese nation and the concept of ecological civilization should be integrated into every aspect and the whole process of national construction.In recent years,China has also regulated environmental problems at the legal level to facilitate the construction of ecological China and beautiful China.In 1997,The Criminal Law first stipulated the crime of "major environmental pollution accident".In 2011,The Criminal Law Amendment(VIII)replaced the original crime of "major environmental pollution accident" with the crime of "environmental pollution".In 2013 and 2016,the Supreme Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate issued the interpretations on several issues concerning handling criminal cases of environmental pollution(hereinafter referred to as the "interpretation of 2013")and the interpretations on several issues concerning the application of laws in handling criminal cases of environmental pollution(hereinafter referred to as the "interpretation of 2016").The contents of these two judicial interpretations regulate the specific issues involved in the crime,and the legal provisions of each stage reflect the ideas and opinions about legal interests in the period.Determining the legal interest view of the crime of environmental pollution is the basis for the effective protection of the legal interest of the crime of environmental pollution,and also the premise for promoting the construction of ecological China and beautiful China through the current criminal law.But the legal interest of the crime of environmental pollution protection has not yet been determined.The governance of environmental crime in China has gone through three stages.From 1979 to 1997,during this period,most of the environmental pollution behaviors were regulated by administrative law,causing major environmental pollution accidents.According to the 1979 Criminal Law,the criminal property regulations violated the dangerous goods management regulations,or the crime of negligence,mainly protecting people.Life health and property safety;from 1997 to 2011,during this period,the criminal law established a “significant environmental pollution accident”,and gradually established an environmental regulation legal system in which criminal law and administrative law are linked to each other,mainly to protect the environment.The administrative management order is the mainstay,and at the same time,it is also necessary to protect people’s life and health and property safety;from 2011 to the present,during this period,the “significant environmental pollution accident” was amended to “contamination of environmental pollution”,emphasizing not only the protection of environmental management order,People’s life and health and property safety,but also to protect the natural environment.In the theoretical circle,there are the anthropocentric,administrative and ecocentric views on the legal interests of the crime of environmental pollution.The view of law and interest of anthropocentrism is in line with the legislative background of paying attention to human interests before 1997,but the view of law and interest is not in line with the current legal provisions,and there is the possibility of minor crimes.The view of the interest of administrative law pays attention to the protection of order,but the view of administrative subordination is too strong and the interpretation of the view of the interest of administrative law is too formalized.Ecocentrism view of legal interests attaches importance to the protection of ecological environment,but the protection of legal interests in this view is too broad,which is not consistent with the current legal provisions.After that,ecocentrism view of legal interests appeared in the criminal law circle.Ecological anthropocentrism legal interest view believes that human legal benefits are still the core legal benefits of environmental pollution crimes.Animals,plants,water resources,the atmosphere,etc.,as independent environmental legal interests,should be protected by criminal law.However,the relevant environment existing as the basis of the present and future human existence can be independently protected as a legal law.The ecological anthropocentrism concept of law and benefit conforms to the development trend of ecological civilization construction and has the characteristics of integrity and universality.The law benefits both the multi-legal benefits,the relevant legislative provisions,and the requirements of modesty,which is conducive to the protection of ecological environment protection and human interests.It is also conducive to solving the difficult problems of environmental pollution crimes in practice,and thus the ecological anthropocentrism legal interest view is reasonable and should be adopted by today’s theory and practice in China.