Environmental Courts and Public Interest Litigation in China

Wang, Alex L.

doi:10.2753/clg0009-4609430600

Cited by 20 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…Some commentators suggest that the decision to grant NGOs access to EPIL is an experiment by the central government, 43 especially targeted at localities suffering from weak enforcement or non-enforcement of environmental regulations. 44 Leaders at local level may implement environmental policy strategically, 45…”

Section: China's Environmental Laws and Public Participationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Public Interest Litigation in China: A Critical Examination

Xie¹,

Xu²

2021

TEL

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Environmental public interest litigation (EPIL) by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) emerged in China over the last decade amidst the growing focus on environmental issues and the increasing political need to bring greater public participation to the area. This article examines the current practice of EPIL by NGOs in order to understand the potential flaws and deficiencies of NGO participation in this relatively new field of environmental litigation. The article sets out by exploring EPIL as a legal pathway for the public to become involved in China's environmental governance. It then analyzes the legal provision of environmental litigation in China before critically examining several instances of EPIL initiated by NGOs between 2015 and 2019. The article finds that NGOs show weaknesses in their current EPIL practice, including in case selection and litigation risk assessment, but are willing to test and potentially expand the scope of EPIL into new areas of environmental protection such as noise pollution and renewable energy. It concludes that these weaknesses and strengths of NGO involvement in EPIL reflect the constantly evolving landscape of environmental governance and environmental litigation in China.

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Section: China's Environmental Laws and Public Participationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Public Interest Litigation in China: A Critical Examination

Xie¹,

Xu²

2021

TEL

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“…Even though Tianfeng was located in Pingba county 平坝县 of Anshun 安顺, more than forty kilometers from Guiyang, the provincial High Court recommended the case to the Qingzhen Environmental Tribunal. Furthermore, among various creative rulings, the court significantly lowered the evidentiary burden on the plaintiffs (Wang and Gao, 2010), which suggested that the court intended to rule in favor of the BOM.…”

Section: Different Practices In the Assertion Of Judicial Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some research suggests that environmental crises necessitate the establishment of environmental tribunals in China (Wang and Gao, 2010; Liu Ailing, 2009). Through a broad review of environmental incidents and environmental tribunals, we find, however, that environmental crises are neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for the establishment of environmental tribunals.…”

Section: Case Selection: Controlled Comparisonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Resources and Divergent Court Empowerment in China: A Subnational Comparison

Juan

Liang

2018

Modern China

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The cities of Guiyang and Kunming are known among legal scholars, practitioners, and policy makers for hosting two of China’s earliest specialized environmental tribunals, following serious water contamination in the two cities. However, the judicialization of environmental protection appears to be relatively nominal in Kunming and substantial in Guiyang. Why? We contend that, at a critical juncture, different political resources available to local leaders—including their past networks and experiences—led them to implement different strategies to deal with these crises. Under similar conditions, different political resources thus led to divergent outcomes of judicial empowerment. We use process tracing to describe the causal sequence in the adoption and application of policies of judicialization. Whether courts are empowered to operate proactively or conservatively is the result of the strategies of local actors in response to the policy agenda set forth by political leaders and constrained by political leaders’ available political resources. This study contributes to existing theories of court empowerment in authoritarian regimes that have largely relied on national-level or socioeconomic factors. Through a controlled subnational comparison in China, this article provides an alternative theory of divergent practices of court empowerment.

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“…In China, the legislation of a comprehensive set of administrative laws and regulations aimed at reigning in abusive government agents and legitimizing the party's rule (Ginsburg 2008;Li 2013Li , 2014aPeerenboom 2001;Pei 1997). Once pollution caused serious social discontent, 2 Data of 1979 from Zhu (2007); data of 2012 from the official website of the Supreme People's Court, available at: http://www.court.gov.cn/qwfb/sfsj/201312/t20131213_190136.htm, last checked on June 30, 2014. the Chinese government promulgated a series of formal rules and initiated institutional experiments for environmental protection (Stern 2014; Van Rooij 2006;Wang & Gao 2010), and to quench massive labor protests that threatened political stability, the Chinese government reformed its labor law system to a level of sophistication and protection exceeding, at least on paper, most OECD countries (Cooney et al 2013). 3 Some legal changes may also reflect the state's desire to meet international demand.…”

Section: A Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Leviathan's Rule by Law

2014

SSRN Journal

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Environmental Courts and Public Interest Litigation in China

Abstract: This issue of Chinese Law and Government offers translations of various documents related to China's framework for environmental litigation, proposals for the development of environmental public interest litigation, and the establishment and practice of environmental courts and tribunals.

Cited by 20 publications

References 0 publications

Environmental Public Interest Litigation in China: A Critical Examination

Environmental Public Interest Litigation in China: A Critical Examination

Political Resources and Divergent Court Empowerment in China: A Subnational Comparison

The Leviathan's Rule by Law

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