Reviewing And Improving Restorative Justice In Environmental Crime Regulation

The report of the 20th Party Congress points out that man and nature are a community of life,and that we should protect the ecological environment as we do our eyes and treat it as we do our lives.At present,China is promoting the construction of ecological civilization with unprecedented strength,and has achieved remarkable results.At the same time,ecological and environmental problems are still urgent,and it is not only necessary but also quite urgent to strengthen the criminal law protection of ecological and environmental legal interests.China’s traditional retaliatory justice focuses on national interests and neglects personal interests;focuses on the punishment function and neglects the restoration function,and the offender can be punished after damaging the ecological environment,but the damaged ecological environment is not restored in time.Ecological restorative justice,in line with the contemporary trend of lighter penalties in criminal law,has become a refreshing stream of environmental justice reform.Empirical research shows that while giving full play to the advantages of ecological restorative justice,ecological restorative justice practice also faces difficulties such as narrower scope of application,imperfect way of assuming responsibility,lack of supervision and evaluation mechanism,low level of restorative justice specialization,and poor connection between environmental crime punishment and administration and civil.In order to effectively bring into play the advantages of ecological restorative justice,build a perfect ecological restorative justice system,expand the scope of application,enrich the mode of application,clarify the stage of application,improve the relevant legislation,improve the supervision and restriction mechanism of restorative justice,smooth the bridge between the punishment of environmental crimes and administrative and civil affairs,improve the professional level of ecological restorative justice,and establish a sound system of ecological restorative justice.The idea of rule of law in Xi Jinping’s thought on ecological civilization requires us to analyze problems,judge right and wrong and deal with matters in the process of ecological civilization construction with rule of law thinking,and to use various legal means such as legislation,law enforcement and justice to protect the ecological environment and guarantee the construction of ecological civilization.In the new era,as we move towards a new journey,we should study in depth the ways to improve the restorative justice for ecological and environmental crimes,and provide "good law and good governance" for the sustainable development of the Chinese nation.