On The Application Of Punitive Damages In Environmental Tort Litigation In China

In recent years,the environmental problem is becoming more and more serious.The Citizen’s environmental protection consciousness gradually strengthens,to the environmental infringement phenomenon and the victim’s relief question receives the widespread attention.Punitive damages are damages awarded by the court in excess of the actual loss,that is to say,on the basis of the actual loss,additional partial compensation.Punitive damages was first proposed in Britain,and then widely used in the United States,and then was introduced to China.But punitive damages applied in the field of product liability in our country at first,whether it can be applied in the field of environmental tort has long been debated in our theoretical and practical circles.For the first time since the entry into force of the 2021,punitive damages for environmental pollution and ecological damage have been provided in the field of environmental tort.However,the law does not specify the scope of application of punitive damages in the field of environmental tort,which is controversial in academic circles.China’s environmental tort litigation mainly involves different types of litigation,and different types of applicable provisions are also different,can play a good deterrent and anti-tort effect.The function of punitive damages can make up for the deficiency of the existing environmental tort remedy system,but it is not applicable to all environmental tort litigation.Therefore,this article mainly carries on the research and the analysis to the punitive compensation,the goal is explores this kind of compensation way rationality and the validity,on this foundation,this paper further explores whether this kind of compensation method can be popularized and applied in private interest litigation.This paper is divided into three parts:Introduction,main body and conclusion.The main body consists of four chapters:The first chapter mainly puts forward the background of the article.It is divided into two sections.The first section analyzes the problems existing in the application of punitive damages,and the second section summarizes and analyzes the viewpoints of scholars on the application of punitive damages.The second chapter is mainly to demonstrate that punitive damages are only suitable to be applied in environmental private interest litigation.It is divided into three sections.The First Section introduces the problems and shortcomings of the existing methods in the Environmental Private Interest Litigation,and analyzes the current relief methods,the fourth section mainly explores the issues that should be paid attention to in the application of punitive damages in Environmental Private Interest Litigation.The third chapter introduces the reasons why punitive damages are not suitable for environmental public interest litigation.This paper mainly analyzes the specific reasons why punitive damages should not be introduced from three aspects,namely the characteristics of environmental public interest litigation itself.This paper mainly introduces the problems that should be paid attention to in the application of punitive damages in environmental private interest litigation.It mainly includes the relationship with compensatory compensation,the applicable subjective conditions,the proof of causality,and the determination of compensation scope.