World Earth Day-Environmental Protection Law With You

Earth Day, or Earth Day, is an annual festival dedicated to the protection of the world's environment, designed to raise awareness of existing environmental problems and mobilize people to participate in environmental campaigns to improve the overall environment of the planet through a green, low-carbon life. This year marks the 52nd World Earth Day, with the theme of "Cherish the Earth People and Live in Harmony with Nature."

Today, let's look at how to protect the planet in a legal way. 

1、 Under what circumstances can civil environmental public interest litigation be instituted? 

Article 2 of the Environmental Protection Act stipulates that "the environment referred to in this Law means the totality of various natural and artificially altered natural factors that affect the survival and development of human beings, including the atmosphere, water, oceans, land, minerals, forests, grasslands, wetlands, wildlife, natural and cultural sites, nature reserves, scenic spots, cities and villages, etc."

Article 1 of the Judicial Interpretation of Environmental Civil Public Interest Litigation provides that "A lawsuit shall be instituted against acts that have harmed the social public interest or have major risk of harming the social public interest and that pollute the environment or damage the ecology". 

2、 Who are qualified to bring an environmental civil litigation? 

The environment is the public property shared by mankind, and no one can have exclusive and proprietary rights over it. 

Article 6 of China's Environmental Protection Act stipulates that "All units and individuals shall have the obligation to protect the environment and the right to file reports and charges against units and individuals that pollute and damage the environment." The accusation here includes two contents: accusation to administrative authorities of environmental protection and prosecution to the people's courts. 

3、 What is the burden of proof for damages caused by environmental pollution? Who shall bear the burden of proof for damages caused by environmental pollution? 

Article 66 of the Tort Law provides that "in the event of a dispute arising from environmental pollution, the polluter shall bear the burden of proof for the disclaimer or mitigated liability circumstances stipulated by the law and the nonexistence of causal relationship between his act and the damage". 

Article 4 (3) of the Several Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Evidence in Civil Proceedings provides that "in a claim for damages caused by environmental pollution, the inflicter shall bear the burden of proof for exemptions stipulated by the law and the nonexistence of causal relationship between his act and the damage". However, the infringed shall first bear the burden of proof for the polluter's act of pollution and the fact of such damage as well as the relevance between the act of pollution and the fact of such damage. 

Accordingly, the principle of inversion of burden of proof is applied in environmental pollution infringement, whereby the infringer shall bear the burden of proof. 

4、 Can such evidence as the monitoring reports be directly transformed into environmental administrative law enforcement? 

 Article 20 of the Measures for the Transition between Administrative Law Enforcement for Environmental Protection and Criminal Justice provides that "physical evidence, documentary evidence, audio-visual materials, electronic data, monitoring reports, inspection reports, identification opinions, expert opinions, investigation records, examination records and other evidence materials lawfully collected and produced by environmental protection departments in the process of administrative law enforcement and case investigation and handling may be used as evidence in criminal proceedings".