Research On The Application Of Punitive Damages In Environmental Civil Public Interest Litigation

In recent years,the phenomenon of infringement of ecological environment in China is increasingly intensified,and the number of environmental civil public interest litigation cases accepted by courts is increasing.The Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China for the first time stipulates punitive damages in the field of ecological and environmental infringement,laying a legislative foundation for the application of punitive damages in environmental civil public interest litigation,which is the embodiment of the strictest ecological and environmental protection system implemented by the Party and the state.However,there is only a principle for the application of this field,and there is still room for further refinement.Based on this,this paper selects 23 relevant verdicts from websites such as judgment documents website and Jufa Website to analyze some problems in the judicial application process.First of all,the subjective and result requirements of punitive damages in environmental civil public interest litigation are relatively general,and judges have different judgments in such cases.Secondly,the main force for bringing lawsuits is the procuratorate.In practice,a large number of qualified social organizations,namely environmental protection organizations,have been absent.Again,the calculation of punitive damages for the lack of unified standards,judges are mostly based on the base multiple method to determine the amount of punitive damages,but for the choice of base and multiple,courts around the practice is not the same,so that the amount of punitive damages sentenced to differ greatly;Finally,the attribution and use of punitive damages are different in judicial practice.Guided by the above problems and combined with the characteristics of environmental civil public interest litigation,this paper tries to put forward corresponding suggestions for improvement by drawing lessons from overseas relevant experience.For example,in the adaptation conditions,subjective elements should adopt the theory of gross negligence;The result requirements can be judged comprehensively according to different types of ecological environment infringement and the subjective malignancy and specific property loss of the infringer.In terms of the main requirements of litigation,the threshold for environmental organizations to file lawsuits can be appropriately lowered,the supporting measures for them to file lawsuits can be improved and the incentive mechanism can be implemented.The determination of punitive damages is mainly based on the cardinal multiple method,which can be typed and judged,and the elastic multiple method can be used for multiple.At the same time adopt other methods;The amount of punitive damages should be determined scientifically and reasonably considering the amount of criminal and administrative fines borne by the infringer.As for the ownership and use of punitive damages,we can refer to the management mode of damages,and consider extracting the corresponding proportion of damages to set up environmental protection funds.Formulate corresponding regulatory measures and make it clear that the funds are specifically used for the protection of the ecological environment.The above suggestions are based on the implementation of the concept of "repair first,punishment second" in environmental civil public interest litigation,and provide new ideas for the judicial practice of punitive damages in future environmental civil public interest litigation.