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Monthly Archives: November 2008

New Report shows Chinese Environmental NGOs and Civil Society Expanding

At its annual forum on NGOs and sustainable development from October 30-31, 2008, the All-China Environmental Federation released the 2008 Environmental Blue Blook: “Report of Chinese Environmental NGO Development,” offering a detailed analysis and follow-up to their first environmental NGO survey conducted in 2005. While the report has not yet been released online, the news media and conference participants received hard copies that detail the growth of environmental NGOs in the last few years. Xinhua also provided coverage of the conference in this article.

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Legal Challenges to the Beijing Car Restriction Policy: Property Rights, Open Government Information, and the Rule of Law

The Beijing car restriction policy has been put into effect for two weeks. Good impacts have been shown on relieving the city’s heavy road transportation and restricting the vehicle emissions, according to one report of today’s Xinhua News. Although the car restriction policy won support from both public transportation riders and private car drivers, differences still exist between the two groups. A recent People’s Daily article discussed the legal challenge towards Beijing’s new car restriction policy. Does it violate the property rights of the car owners? Lawyers, law professors, scholars on economics and public policy were interviewed about their reading … Continue reading 阅读全文 » Add comment 发表评论(3)

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Environmental Law and Public Participation News

Several big environmental law news items were covered by the Chinese media this week. The culmination of discontent over heating price and other utilities hearings finally convinced the government of Zhengzhou to improve the openness and accessibility of administrative decision hearings, but a recent survey revealed that many Chinese still believe the hearings to be a mere formality. More importantly, the city of Wuxi passed the first-ever environmental public interest litigation law, greatly enhancing the scope of admissibility for environmental litigation in its courts. Eight articles after the jump.

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October Yangtze Delta Newsletter published

The October issue of the Yangtze Delta Newsletter is now available for download (in Chinese). The main headline highlights the Third Cross-Strait Environmental Protection and Development conference that was held from October 6 to 15, 2008. Members of China’s environmental protection community engaged in lively discussion with the Taiwanese environmental community, including 20 Taiwanese environmental NGOs, on how to implement cross-straits programming and improve future cooperation. The second front-page article focuses on the release of the CLAPV and Xiamen Citizens’ Guides, previously featured in this Greenlaw post. Previous issues of the Yangtze Delta newsletter are featured in this post.

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Environmental Law and Public Participation news

Chinese news sources from this past week once again raise the issue of open information disclosure in the aftermath of the Hangzhou subway tunnel collapse, an incident that left several dead and over a dozen missing. The news media is largely supportive of the government reaction to the incident, praising their fast action as a key factor in dispelling rumors and quelling public panic. Nevertheless, a number of other op-eds touch on the issue of information disclosure from a more skeptical viewpoint, using the opportunity of the 30th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up to point out how much … Continue reading 阅读全文 » Add comment 发表评论(0)

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Two new guides on environmental information disclosure and public participation launched

The end of October brings two new citizens’ guides. The “Practical Citizen Guide on Environmental Information Disclosure Measures” drafted by the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims (CLAPV) at the Chinese University of Political Science and Law has completed its printing run and will be distributed to the public soon. It is also available for downloading from the CLAPV website. This guide is tailored to the general public, illustrating legal provisions in plain language and providing practical guidance on the use of the law. At the same time, in Xiamen, a number of local web-based communities are spreading the … Continue reading 阅读全文 » Add comment 发表评论(0)

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