Research On Environmental Administrative Public Interest Litigation Practice In China

The environmental and natural resources are not only related to economic and social development,but also related to the production,life,health and safety of the public.However,the current situation of environmental resources in China is not optimistic,environmental governance is still facing great pressure.Administrative organs assume important functions in environmental protection,supervision and management,but in practice there are many cases in which environmental administrative organs are negligent in performing their duties and even abuse their powers,causing infringement on ecological and environmental interests.Among them,environmental public interest is often ignored by all parties and cannot be remedied for a long time.In order to supervise environmental administrative actions,urge administrative organs to perform environmental supervision duties and protect the environment and resources,China launched the pilot environmental administrative public interest litigation in some areas in July 2015 and launched it nationwide two years later.It has been nearly six years since then.As a new system,environmental administrative public interest litigation has been attached great importance by all sides,and has achieved good results.However,due to the weakness in theoretical basis,inadequate instituions and insufficient practical experience,many problems have been exposed in practice.With 285 cases related in 2020 being analyzed,the paper investigates the status of judicial practice from the regional distribution and trial level of cases,the status of pre-litigation procuratorial recommendations issued by procuratorial organs,the response to the recommendations and the performance,the defense of the administration and the attitude of the court,as well as the results and types of the referee.Combining statistical data and judical cases,the paper summarizes the problems in practice,including the irregularities in the prosecution suggestions,the standard of performance of the administrative organs is too strict and the time limit is inappropriate,the trial object and the period of prosecution is unclear,and the form of judgment is unreasonable,which affect the efficiency of justice and violates the unity of judicial application.Therefore,this paper suggests that,we should standardize the pre-litigation procuratorial recommendations,improve the review standards for the performance of administrative agencies,reasonably set the period for the performance of administrative agencies,clarify the subject of this litigation,add special provisions on the time limit for prosecution,and improve the types of judgments.Only in this way can this system practice well in our country,and finally realize its due value function.