Civil Public Interest Litigation Issues For Wildlife Protection

Wildlife resources are not only of economic value to humans,but also have ecological value as an important part of the ecosystem.Therefore,in cases related to wildlife protection,the illegal killing or fishing of wild animals not only causes the loss of relevant resources,but also causes damage to the ecological environment.The good ecological environment itself is a public good,and its damage will undoubtedly have a negative impact on the public interests of the environment.Therefore,China’s judicial concept of wildlife protection has gradually changed from economic value as the core to ecological value as the value orientation,and civil public interest litigation for wildlife protection has also emerged in accordance with the law.Nevertheless,judging from the trial of the typical case of the case of smuggling pangolin scales in Chongzuo,Guangxi,it reflects that there are still three issues in the judicial practice of civil public interest litigation for wildlife protection in China: public interest determination,joint infringement and compensation.First of all,the accuracy of the determination of public interest is the key to the correctness of civil public interest litigation for wildlife protection,because the legal provisions are unclear and there are differences in the definition of public interest in practice,which in turn has an adverse impact on the initiation of litigation and the calculation of actual losses.Based on the particularity of civil public interest litigation for wildlife protection,direct infringement should be taken as the criterion for judging damage to public interests,ecological value damage should be used as the basis for determining the actual loss value,and the ecological value calculation rules should be unified by means of conversion,and relevant laws and regulations should be improved in a timely manner,reasonable benchmark values should be formulated and updated in a timely manner,so as to maximize the role of civil public interest litigation in wildlife protection.Secondly,in terms of the determination of joint infringers,on the basis of following the traditional rules for determining joint infringement and taking into account the characteristics of wildlife infringement,the joint infringement liability should be pursued on the basis of fault liability for the participation of the sender-logistics company,and the possibility of joint infringement of indirect infringers should be excluded when pursuing the acquirer’s tort liability,focusing on the overall interest chain while avoiding the excessive expansion of public interest litigation.Finally,on the issue of liability,due to the different nature of infringement,the overlapping of administrative,criminal and civil liabilities may be involved in civil public interest litigation for wildlife protection,and the unclear application of the tripartite monetary payment liability in practice and the improper application of apologies will weaken the legal effect.It is necessary to base on the positioning of the supplementary remedy function of public interest litigation,take the protection of the public interest of resources and the ecological public interest as the core,and take the fact of damage to the public interest as the basis,clarify the application relationship of various types of monetary payment liability through detailed laws and regulations,and standardize the application of apologies.